Goa backs social media curbs for under-16s, pushes for only ‘beneficial use of technology'

Goa will soon finalise and submit a “comprehensive document” outlining its “intention” to ban social media use for children under 16 to Centre

Goa IT minister Rohan Khaunte on Wednesday said that after consultations with industry and academia experts, the state government will soon finalise and submit a “comprehensive document” outlining its “intention” to ban social media use for children under 16 to Union minister for information and technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Several other Indian states such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are also considering Australia-style age bans for under-16s.

“At the end of the day, it’s a central subject, but we want to make our intentions clear for the benefit of the students and the benefit of the youth. It is the initiative of the IT department to move constructively to look at restricting social media for youth below 16 years,” Khaunte said after attending a meeting.

“It is a challenge for the parents because they are not able to control. Children are using their phones as they want. A certain policy from the state will also allow the parents to find a particular comfort line and, when a child turns 18, he should not find that he lost five years playing games,” Khaunte added.

Only ‘beneficial use of technology’ encouraged

Encouraging students to make “beneficial use of technology,” Khaunte said that the present proposal was only to “restrict that which is detrimental, that which gives the children no dividends.”

“At the same time, we can see how to promote educational tools like Google, where they can spend that same time learning more things, which is good for the youth, who are the future of the country,” Khaunte said.

Khaunte, in March this year, had said he set up a committee to advise the government to draw up a ban on social media for children under 16, claiming that he received a lot of complaints from parents.

“When we talk about social media, I want to make sure that we are not talking about educational tools. We want them to embrace technology; we also need to have a balance so that they are not misdirected towards issues which are detrimental to the future of the child,” he had said.

Centre's press conference on age-based restrictions

In February, Vaishnaw had said in a press conference that the government is holding consultations with various social media platforms on age-based restrictions.

Other Indian states such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are also considering Australia-style age bans for under-16s.

“In the country, we are the first to take this up. Andhra Pradesh and others started getting into this mode, and discussions are now happening in possibly every state. I’m confident that the Centre and the states, by putting their thoughts together, will be able to come up with a solution for this,” he said.

Currently, there is no law in India that bars children below a certain age from accessing social media. However, under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, social media platforms must obtain verifiable parental consent before processing personal data of anyone under 18.

This indirectly limits use by minors because platforms typically rely on parental permission to legally handle a child’s data. It also means platforms cannot freely collect data on children or target ads at them without parental permission.