BJP MP Baijayant Panda scheduled the SHIELD Bill, 2025, in Parliament to mandate verified parental consent for children under 13 on social media and gaming platforms.
The proposed legislation strictly prohibits digital intermediaries from tracking, profiling, or targeting minors with personalised advertisements.
Platforms must implement mandatory age-verification mechanisms and provide parental-control dashboards to monitor online activity and limit screen time.
Under-13s May Need Verified Parental Consent For Social Media, Gaming Under New Bill
BJP MP Baijayant Panda's proposed SHIELD Bill, 2025, seeks to mandate parental consent for minors under 13 on social media and online gaming platforms in India.
Summary
Children under 13 could be barred from creating social media and online gaming accounts without verified parental consent under a proposed private member's bill. BJP MP Baijayant Panda scheduled the Safeguarding Healthy Internet Environments for Little Digital-Natives (SHIELD) Bill, 2025, for introduction on Friday.
However, parliamentary adjournments delayed the bill's introduction on Friday. This legislative push follows recent regulatory shifts, where the government amended the Information Technology Rules to mandate faster removal of sensitive content and strengthen compliance requirements for major social media platforms.
Protecting Minor Digital Natives
The draft classifies anyone under 18 as a child. It imposes strict safety duties on social media firms, gaming portals and other digital intermediaries to protect young users. The bill bans these firms from monitoring or profiling minors, and outlaws targeted advertising aimed at them.
Under the proposed framework, platforms must implement mandatory age-verification mechanisms. The bill also requires platforms to offer parental-control dashboards. Through these dashboards, guardians can monitor online activity, manage privacy settings and limit screen time.
Additionally, platforms must take active measures to prevent children from accessing pornography, gambling, simulated betting, violent or extremist material and drug-related content to ensure a safe digital environment.
Penalties And Legislative Hurdles
Platforms found violating the proposed legislation face penalties of up to ₹10 crore. Repeated or wilful violations could lead to temporary suspension or blocking of services under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
The bill was among two private members' bills scheduled to be introduced in Parliament on Friday, but both could not be taken up due to adjournments of the House. The second proposed legislation seeks to regulate the misuse of artificial intelligence for creating realistic imitations of people.
Private members' bills, however, rarely become law. Only about a dozen such bills have been passed by Parliament since Independence.
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