Like Alcohol Consumption, Age Limit Needed For Social Media: Karnataka HC To Govt Amid X Corp Appeal

Questioning whether children, 17 or 18, have the maturity to judge what is in the 'interest of the nation', Karnataka High Court saud government should consider bringing an age limit for social media. The court was hearing an appeal by X Corp on user account blockades by MeiTY.

Outlook Web Desk

Updated on: 19 September 2023 11:59 am

Children in the age of social media.

Karnataka High Court on Tuesday observed that there should be an age limit for using social media akin to the legal age for drinking alcohol. Hearing an appeal by X Corp (formerly Twitter Inc) challenging the single judge order of June 30 which had dismissed its plea to the takedown orders issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY), the court said “a lot of good” will happen by banning social media for children.

A division bench of Justices G Narendar and Vijaykumar A Patil was hearing the case. MeiTY had under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act between February 2, 2021, and February 28, 2022, issued 10 Government Orders directing it to block 1,474 accounts, 175 Tweets, 256 URLs and one hashtag. Twitter challenged the orders related to 39 of these URLs.

"Ban social media. I will tell you a lot of good will come. Today's school-going children are so addicted to it. I think there should be an age limit such as in Excise rules," Justice G Narendar noted, as quoted by PTI.

Children may be aged 17 or 18, the court observed, "But do they have the maturity to judge what is or is not in the interest of the nation? Not only on social media but even on the internet things should be removed, it corrupts the mind. Government should consider bringing in an age limit for the use of social media."

X Corp's counsel argued that MeiTY had not informed users about blocking their tweets and accounts and the company was also forbidden from informing them. The HC asked the government how someone would defend themselves if the company was not permitted to even reveal the order to them.

The HC suggested the government tweak the rules a bit, saying the company cannot be left high and dry. However, the court also highlighted, "When it comes to national security, everybody has to be on the same page."

As X Corp argued that it had informed MeiTY about which order it could comply with and which it could not, the bench asserted that they cannot act like a judge. The court said the company "cannot be given the right to judge the content. If the content says 'Apple a day keeps the doctor away', will you interpret that as being against the doctor and the interest of the nation?"

The case was adjourned till Wednesday when the high court will decide on the interim relief sought by X Corp. The hearing of the appeal will resume after that, the HC said.