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Beyond parental consent: Why India needs an age appropriate design code

Jan 28, 2025 05:28 PM IST

This article is authored by Uthara Ganesh, head of public policy, India and South Asia, Snap Inc.

India is at a fascinating digital crossroads. We’re witnessing the first generation of true digital natives, with an active under-18 internet user base, and a striking percentage of these users actively engaging with internet connected devices, daily. At the backdrop of this is a heightened sense of tech optimism - with India emerging as a digital powerhouse.

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Family(Freepik)

While the past decade has seen considerable debate in India around content moderation, these conversations have largely centred on free speech and allied considerations. There is a conspicuous gap in addressing youth safety concertedly--and the implications of this are far reaching.

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act and draft rules, while well intentioned, do not address the issue holistically. A parental consent-led approach is, by design, limited in its ability to meet our goal of ensuring u-18’s online safety. In India, there is an evident digital literacy gap between u-18s and their parents. In rural India, where only 29% of women have internet access compared to 52% of men, parents, especially mothers lack the ability to give informed consent. That over 20% of internet users use shared devices adds to this complexity. For u-18s in low-income or marginalized families, stringent verification processes may mean exclusion.

What India needs is a well-considered, contextual framework that moves beyond a parental consent binary, and addresses the connection between technological access, developmental psychology, socioeconomic mobility and digital literacy. A systems-based approach requiring the interests of a child to be taken into consideration in product design and development ensures that child safety and privacy are embedded into the core of digital platform design and operation. One such approach is the development of an Age Appropriate Design Code (AADC) or Children’s Code, as developed in the United Kingdom, California, and several other jurisdictions. These laws have driven significant improvements from online platforms to better safeguard their users.

This approach ensures that products are tailored to the age of the users, applying suitable standards in an age appropriate manner. In an AADC framework, high privacy settings are the default, with minimal data collection and retention. AADCs also require the creation of parental control tools.

The concept of appropriate design is foundational to our approach at Snapchat: our teams, products, policies, and partnerships apply safety by design principles to keep Snapchatters safe and to safeguard their privacy. We are strong supporters of regulation which promotes the safe and responsible design of online platforms.

This is a complex exercise that needs separate, contextual consideration, outside of the broader debate on personal data protection. It requires a framework that accounts for the age range of the audience, the complexity of the service provided, and the ability of u-18s at different stages of development to comprehend data protection information.

While some work is in order to develop a AADC or Children’s Code which is right for India’s needs, especially around ensuring implementability for small businesses and digital inclusion, it would be a powerful tool to enhance the online safety and privacy of young people in India.

The DPDP Rules have laid a strong foundation, but the work of protecting u-18s holistically remains. We’ll need to do more in 2025 in order to have a more earnest and considered conversation about what a framework that protects our young citizens while unleashing their full potential looks like.

This article is authored by Uthara Ganesh, head of public policy, India and South Asia, Snap Inc.

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