The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the Central government in a plea filed by Indore-based Emerald Heights International School seeking restrictions on children's access to social media platforms [The Emerald Heights International School & Anr. v Union of India & Ors].
A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi listed the matter for further hearing on December 7.
The plea filed by the school and its Director, Siddharth Singh, seeks directions to the Centre, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Law and Justice, and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to frame and implement a comprehensive regulatory framework to protect children from risks associated with social media.
These risks include grooming, sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, exposure to age-inappropriate content and compulsive use of digital platforms.
The petition also seeks a ban on social media use by children below a prescribed age and age-based restrictions on the creation, maintenance and use of accounts by minors.
It flags several other harms linked to social media use, including depression, anxiety, social comparison, body-image dissatisfaction, disordered eating and sleep disruption. It also raises concerns about coercion involving intimate images and children's exposure to violent, sexually explicit, self-harm and suicide-related content.
The petition further seeks safeguards against behavioural profiling, through which platforms analyse users' behaviour, and design features that encourage compulsive use.
According to the petitioners, these harms may develop unnoticed until serious damage has occurred and cannot be adequately addressed through platform assurances, voluntary safeguards or parental controls alone.
The plea further seeks a declaration that the government's continuing failure to protect children against these risks is arbitrary and violates their fundamental rights, including the right to equality, the right to life and personal liberty, and the right to education.
The petition was filed through advocate Vaibhav Choudhary and drawn by advocates Khusbhu Jain, Mayank Singh Rawat and Zaid Ahmed.