Andhra Pradesh considering Australia-like social media ban for kids

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Andhra Pradesh is studying Australia’s ban on children under 16 years of age from using social media, its minister in charge of technology and human resources said Tuesday.

“As a state, we are studying Australia’s under-16 law, and yes, I believe we need to create a strong legal enactment,” Nara Lokesh told Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Lokesh said he strongly felt that youngsters under a certain age should not be on social media “because they don’t understand what they are seeing.”

India has implemented parental controls for minors accessing social media but the federal government is yet to express any opinion on wider restrictions.

While petitions seeking tighter controls on access to social media platforms and harmful online content have been filed in court, state-level enforcement may face both legal and technological hurdles.

“Ultimately, the internet works through a backbone and there are ways and means to circumvent IP detection,” said Karnika Seth, a lawyer specializing in cybersecurity and public policy. “A total ban will have to be looked into — whether this will be really possible in the first place and then enforceable as well.”

That said, India has in recent years sought to amend its laws to match the pace at which the internet is evolving, with new sections governing data privacy, social media, and cybersecurity. And the issue is global — policymakers in Indonesia, Denmark, Brazil and other nations are also moving to rein in Big Tech, which counts young users as a key demographic.

Back home, Andhra Pradesh has emerged as a politically pivotal state, with its Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu supporting Narendra Modi after the 2024 general election to help him form a government in New Delhi. Naidu — considered to be among the most tech-savvy leaders — has promoted the state as an IT and industrial hub, and recently signed a $15 billion deal with Alphabet Inc’s Google for a data center.

“We want to be a $2.4 trillion economy by 2047,” said Lokesh, adding that they were trying to integrate capital, talent and supply chains. “As a state, we don’t make bold announcements, we are actually about executing them.”