Karnataka has announced a ban on social media use by children under 16 in its latest Budget, and Andhra Pradesh is moving to introduce a measure that would prohibit those under 13 to use such services — a signal of the growing momentum in India to protect children from the various harms that social media platforms can cause.“With the objective of preventing adverse effects of increasing mobile usage in children, usage of social media will be banned for children under the age of 16,” Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Friday while presenting the state’s annual Budget. He did not offer technical details of how such a ban would be implemented. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has said the state will introduce similar regulations within 90 days.Calls for banning social media use for children are gaining traction across the world, with the precedent set by a landmark Australian legislation that went into effect last year. During his keynote address at the India-AI Impact Summit last month, French President Emmanuel Macron called on India to consider banning social media for children.Macron said France, as the current G7 chair, will work towards ensuring the protection of children against AI and digital abuse. “This is why in France we are embarking on a process to ban social networks for children aged under 15 years,” he said, adding that Spain and several other European countries are going to take a similar step and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “join the club”.Preliminary discussions in IndiaThough India is yet to make a regulatory move at the central level, preliminary discussions around age-based social media restrictions are learnt to have begun at the IT Ministry.Last month, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said the Centre was discussing age-based restrictions with social media companies.Earlier this year, the Economic Survey 2025-26 also called on the government to implement age-based limits for social media usage for children and digital ads targeted at them. The Survey’s recommendation stemmed from larger concerns surrounding “digital addiction” among young users.Story continues below this adIt also stated that simpler devices, such as basic phones or education-only tablets, should be promoted among children along with enforced usage limits and content filters. This could reduce their exposure to harmful material, including violent, sexual, or gambling-related content, the Survey said.Is banning social media for kids feasible in India? There are, according to tech executives, operational challenges in implementing state-level bans. “A central level law that lays down rules for social media access can be carried out uniformly. But, with some states banning such usage and some not, that could be operationally challenging to implement given the nature of connectivity. Implementing geo-restrictions at the states’ level is definitely difficult,” a senior executive from a tech company said.Another tech executive pointed out that in Karnataka, the government is calling for a ban on social media use by those under the age of 16, whereas in Andhra Pradesh, the measure may apply to those under the age of 13. “This inconsistency in defining who is a child will arise if different states bring out different legislations, so a central level measure may be preferable,” this person said.Also Read | Parental control on apps, curbs on phones in school: Goa panel discusses social media restrictions for childrenStory continues below this adA Meta spokesperson said that while it will comply with the ban in Karnataka when it is enforced, such restrictions should “apply equally across the many apps that teens use and not just a handful of companies”. The spokesperson added: “Governments considering bans should be careful not to push teens toward less safe, unregulated sites, or logged-out experiences that bypass important protections.”The Delhi-based digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) said that blanket social media bans are a “disproportionate response that can do more harm than good,” adding that such measures “often fail to address root causes such as platform design choices that maximise engagement over safety, inadequate data protection frameworks, and poor digital literacy infrastructure while restricting children’s right to information, expression, and participation”.“In the Indian context, where girls and young women already face significant barriers to digital access, a ban framed around “protection” can easily become another tool to deny them connectivity altogether. Families and communities may use such restrictions to justify keeping girls offline permanently, deepening the digital gender divide rather than narrowing it,” IFF said.The Australian templateLast year, Australia became the first country in the world to enforce a minimum age for social media use, requiring platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and Snap to block over a million accounts of users below the age of 16. The Australian law, which has drawn criticism from tech companies but support from parents, is likely to set a template for a broader global push to tighten regulation of young users’ online safety.Story continues below this adIn Opinion | Australia banned social media for minors. India must follow its leadUnder Australia’s Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act, age-restricted platforms will be expected to take “reasonable” steps to find existing accounts held by under-16s, and deactivate or remove those accounts, prevent them from opening new accounts, including prohibiting any workarounds that may allow them to bypass the restrictions. Platforms must also have processes to correct errors if someone is mistakenly missed by or included in the curbs, so that no one’s account is removed unfairly.According to the Australian government, the restrictions aim to protect young people from “pressures and risks” that users can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts. These come from design features that encourage them to spend more time on screen, while also serving up content that can harm their health and wellbeing. Earlier, the country’s eSafety Commissioner had in a survey found that over 50% of young Australians have faced cyberbullying on social media platforms.