PIL filed in Delhi High Court to restrict children under 13 from accessing social media

Justice Tejas Karia of the Delhi High Court on Wednesday recused himself from hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking formulation of a nationwide framework to restrict social media access for children below the age of 13.

The case came up for hearing before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Karia.

The Court said that the matter will be heard on August 5 by a Bench of which Justice Karia is not a member.

The petition has been filed by Kirti Dua, mother of a three-year-old, and a paediatrician named Dr Sharad Gupta.

According to the PIL, unchecked exposure to inappropriate and sexually explicit material on social media violates the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution, as well as the State's duty under Article 39(f) to protect children from exploitation.

It points to the government's Economic Survey of 2025-2026 that flagged rising social media addiction and mental health concerns among youth.

"Even though they [Economic Survey] listed some measures in order to curb this viscous cycle of digital addiction, still it is voluntary in nature and we need a binding legislation for this serious issue," the plea states.

The petition names the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), the Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights as respondents.

Meta, Alphabet (Google and YouTube's parent company), Telegram, Snap Inc (Snapchat parent company) and X have also been made parties to the plea.

The PIL seeks restrictions on social media access for children under 13, content regulation for those aged 13 to 16, overnight curfews for teenage users, mandatory age-verification systems modelled on India's Digi Yatra framework and stricter enforcement of existing laws such as the IT Act, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and the POCSO Act.

The petitioners have asked the High Court to direct social platforms to filter content and block URLs hosting child sexual abuse material.

Notably, the plea points to legislative models from Australia, Canada, France, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece and Italy, arguing that these countries have recently enacted or drafted laws on child safety online that India should draw upon while framing its own binding legislation.

The plea points to a government Economic Survey that flagged rising social media addiction and mental health concerns among youth. It cites recent foreign court rulings - including a Meta liability verdict in New Mexico and a Los Angeles jury finding against Meta and Google over addictive design - as evidence of the scale of the problem.

The PIL has been filed through Advocate Anshul Gupta of ANG Partners Advocates and Solicitors. Senior Advocate Pinky Anand appeared for them today.