Ghaziabad sisters’ suicide case: Ram Gopal Varma reacts to demand on social media ban for minors, ‘bans don’t safeguard childhood but…’

Ghaziabad sisters’ suicide case: Ram Gopal Varma reacts to demand on social media ban for minors, ‘bans don’t safeguard childhood but…’

• Ram Gopal Varma opposes banning social media for minors after Ghaziabad tragedy
• He argues bans harm children's access to knowledge and global opportunities
• Varma says restrictions could widen global inequalities among young people

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Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma has reacted criticised growing calls to ban or restrict social media access for minors following the tragic deaths of three sisters in Ghaziabad. He said that such measures misunderstand how the modern world works and could ultimately harm young people more than protect them.

The alleged suicide of the three minor girls on February 4 has reignited a nationwide debate around digital addiction and online safety.

In the wake of the incident, several voices have demanded stricter controls on children’s access to social media, with some even calling for outright bans for those under 16.

On Monday, the filmmaker took to social media to share a long note titled “BAN THE BANNERS. The core problem with banning social media to protect children under 16 from so-called offensive content also will handicap them in today’s hyper-competitive global information economy,” Varma wrote.

“It’s foolish to think social media is just a frivolous distraction because in today’s times, it’s the primary pipeline for real-time knowledge, skills, and networks that determine who gets ahead.”

RGV went on to stress that restricting access in one country while others remain open would only widen global inequalities.

“Instant access to diverse perspectives, breaking news, and opportunities that kids in restricted countries only encounter later, if at all, through much slower and curated channels, will create a stark competitive inequality,” he said.

“A 14 year-old in a non-banning country builds an intuitive mastery of information flows, builds online communities, experiments with ideas, and stays ahead of a counterpart in a banning country… where kids will miss the informal education, the discoveries, and the early digital social capital that will compound over time into better education outcomes, career edges, and innovative thinking,” he further wrote.

“The ‘protection’ rationale of banning sounds noble, but it ignores how the modern world actually works,” he wrote. “Information speed is now a decisive factor in both personal and national success. Kids will still encounter the world eventually, but those denied early, guided exposure risk entering it less prepared, less adaptable, and less informed than the unrestricted,” Varma said.

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“In an era where knowledge compounds exponentially online, these bans don’t safeguard childhood but they will create a generation of digital latecomers, structurally behind in the global race for ideas, skills, and opportunities,” he wrote, adding that the “offensive content” argument, while valid in isolated cases, “pales against the systemic cost of information deprivation in a competitive world.”

The debate follows a deeply disturbing incident in Ghaziabad, where three young sisters allegedly jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor of their apartment.

Police told news agency Press Trust of India that the girls were reportedly depressed after their father confiscated their mobile phones, fearing they were becoming overly obsessed with Korean culture.