Indian states weigh Australia-style ban on social media for children

India could become the next major test case for age-based social media bans, as states weigh Australia-style restrictions on children’s access to platforms amid a growing global regulatory push.

The push has begun at the state level, with the western state of Goa becoming the latest to study whether to bar children under 16 from social media platforms. “Australia has brought in a law ensuring a ban on social media for children below the age of 16,” said Goa’s IT minister Rohan Khaunte this week. “Our department people have already pulled out those particular papers. We are studying them, if possible, [will] implement a similar ban on children below 16 for usage of social media.”

Like Goa, the southern state of Andhra Pradesh is also considering adopting Australia’s approach. Earlier this month, the state’s IT and education minister, Nara Lokesh, suggested the move, saying officials were studying Australia’s law.

“I believe we need to create a strong legal enactment,” Lokesh said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

The Andhra Pradesh government has already constituted a group of ministers to study whether restrictions or a ban on minors’ access to social media platforms would be legally and practically feasible. The panel is chaired by Lokesh and includes key cabinet ministers.

In addition to the two Indian states, the issue has also drawn judicial scrutiny, with the Madras High Court urging India’s federal government in December to consider Australia-style restrictions, highlighting how concerns about children’s online safety are driving regulatory debates well beyond legislatures.

Any move to restrict children’s access to social media in India would carry significant implications for global technology companies, for which the South Asian nation is a critical growth market. Government estimates put India’s internet user base at more than 1 billion, with a large share of those users coming online at a young age, making the country central to the user and advertising strategies of platforms such as Meta, Google, and X.

A Meta spokesperson said the company shared lawmakers’ goal of creating “safe, positive online experiences for young people,” but argued that parents — rather than governments — should decide which apps their teenagers use. “Governments considering bans should be careful not to push teens toward less safe, unregulated sites, or logged-out experiences that bypass important protections — like the default safeguards we offer in Instagram’s Teen Accounts,” the spokesperson said.

Passed through the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 and approved by parliament in November 2024 before taking effect in December 2025, Australia’s under-16 social media ban has already exposed enforcement challenges for platforms.

Last year, Meta began notifying Australian teenagers that their accounts would be shut down, signaling the difficulty of accurately determining users’ ages, particularly when people are not always truthful at sign-up. The law, which also included Twitch but exempted Pinterest, Discord, GitHub, Roblox, and Steam, among others, has reignited concerns about digital age-verification systems, which pose privacy and security risks due to the sensitive data they require.

Australia’s move is being closely watched beyond India, with governments in countries such as Denmark, France, and Spain, as well as Indonesia and Malaysia studying similar restrictions.

Kazim Rizvi, founding director of New Delhi–based think tank The Dialogue, told TechCrunch that while there is growing pressure to regulate children’s use of social media, internet governance falls under federal law, meaning states cannot amend national statutes such as the Information Technology Act or the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. He added that some states, including Andhra Pradesh, are therefore likely to seek the central government’s support — an outcome that remains uncertain.

India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, passed in August 2023, includes specific protections for children’s data, requiring verifiable parental consent before processing personal data of individuals under 18 and prohibiting tracking, behavioral monitoring, and targeted advertising directed at minors. However, the operational rules for these provisions are being phased in through 2027, giving platforms time to implement the required safeguards.

Google, Snap, and X did not respond to requests for comment. India’s IT ministry also did not respond when contacted.