Debate over teen social media use grows in key tech market India

Instagram and Facebook each have over 400 million users in India, more than any other country

• India considers banning social media accounts for users under 16.
• Proposed bill could fine tech firms up to $28 million or 5% of global revenue
• Australia, Spain, and others mull under-16 social media bans

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Officials in India are publicly debating age restrictions for accessing social media, a potential fresh challenge to Big Tech in a massive market for users as global debate grows over online harms to children.

Parliamentarian Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, whose party is aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s, plans to introduce a private member’s bill in the coming months barring children under 16 from maintaining social media accounts. The aim is to ensure data privacy and protect children and adolescents from exploitation, Devarayalu said in an interview.

Such bills don’t represent government policy and typically don’t become laws, but can lead to wider parliamentary debate. State level officials and India’s finance ministry have also raised the issue of potential harms from social media.

Any move to limit access to platforms in the world’s most populous nation would be a blow to the likes of Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram and Facebook, Snap Inc.’s Snapchat, Elon Musk’s X and more. Australia blocking under-16s from social media has prompted governments around the world to propose following suit, and a similar move by India would be the most significant yet by the number of users affected.

Instagram and Facebook each have over 400 million users in India, more than any other country, according to DataReportal, a library of reports on global digital behavior. Snapchat has more than 200 million on its platform there, making India its largest market by users, while X has more than 20 million users, the data shows.

While the companies typically earn less revenue per user in India than in more economically developed countries such as the US, India represents unrivaled potential for growth. It is home to the world’s largest remaining pool of untapped digital consumers, with legions of people yet to get online.

Devarayalu said responsibility for ensuring compliance would rest with the tech firms. Penalties according to his planned Social Media Age Restrictions and Online Safety Bill could be as much as 2.5 billion rupees ($28 million) or 5% of a company’s global revenue, whichever is lower.

“If we can ban apps like TikTok, or the ones for gambling, this can be done easily as well because the resources are there for it,” he said.

India in 2020 blocked TikTok and other Chinese apps on national security grounds and last year put in place a law banning online gambling.

Meta, Snap and X, along with India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Devarayalu, 42, entered parliament in 2019 and is the vice chairman of a group of educational institutions in Andhra Pradesh. The southern state is studying Australia’s ban on children using social media, its minister in charge of technology and human resources said last month.

Meanwhile, the IT minister for populous Maharashtra state, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, has ordered a task force be assembled to recommend methods for addressing the harms of social media to children. In a Monday post on X, he cited the “alarming rise in digital addiction among children and its adverse impact on their mental and physical well-being.”

The minister, Ashish Shelar, said in an interview on Wednesday that a minimum age hadn’t been specified.

Last week, India’s Economic Survey raised age-based restrictions on social media use as an issue for discussion. The annual survey is released by India’s Ministry of Finance and represents an annual report card on the economy and lays out the outlook for the country.

Australia in December became the world’s first democracy to initiate such a social media crackdown with its under-16 ban. Several countries have since made similar moves or signaled they’re considering action.

Spain’s prime minister on Tuesday said the country would limit social media use for those under 16, and at least six other countries, including France, the UK, and the Netherlands, are weighing similar restrictions.