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Synopsis

The Karnataka High Court has suggested that the Central government could consider imposing a minimum age limit for the use of social media platforms to protect children from its potential harms.

This suggestion was made by a bench comprising Justice G Narender and Justice Vijaykumar A Patil during a hearing about the dangers associated with exposing children to social media.

The bench expressed concerns about the addiction of school-going children to social media and suggested that implementing a user age limit could be beneficial. The court proposed that the age limit for social media usage should be at least 21 years, the age at which individuals gain the right to vote.

The oral remarks were made during the hearing of an appeal by X Corp (formerly Twitter) concerning the Indian government's orders for blocking certain tweets and accounts in 2021 and 2022. The court is expected to announce its order on the interlocutory applications related to the case soon.

The counsel representing the Central government informed the court that current regulations require users to provide Aadhaar and other identification documents to access certain online games. The court questioned why similar measures were not extended to social media platforms and suggested that such regulations could be considered.

The court also expressed concerns about intermediaries like X Corp facing legal threats from account holders if they are ordered to take down posts or accounts while maintaining confidentiality. It suggested that rules might need to be adjusted to protect intermediaries and ensure they are not left vulnerable to prosecution.

Furthermore, the court emphasized that intermediaries like X Corp should not be expected to make subjective judgments about which posts or accounts to take down. Instead, they should only be required to assess whether the content in question violates relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The case initially began with Twitter challenging certain blocking orders issued by the Indian government. A single-judge of the Karnataka High Court had rejected Twitter's challenge and imposed a fine of ₹50 lakhs for alleged delays in complying with block demands. Twitter, now X Corp, has since complied with most of the demands but expressed concerns about the lack of reasons provided for over 1,000 tweets ordered to be taken down.