Govt Strengthens Measures to Protect Children from Harmful Online Content | Kashmir Life

SRINAGAR: The Union government has highlighted its multi-layered approach to safeguard children from harmful, addictive, or age-inappropriate content on social media platforms, amid growing concerns over increased internet exposure for users below 18 years.

Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said the government is cognisant of the risks posed by digital content to children and has adopted a series of measures to enhance accountability among social media platforms. Central to this framework are the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, and the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which impose stringent obligations on intermediaries to remove unlawful content and ensure safe digital spaces for minors.

Key provisions require platforms to restrict content that is obscene, pornographic, privacy-invasive, harmful to children, misleading, or promoting violence. Intermediaries must also provide grievance redressal mechanisms, act within 24–72 hours to remove offending content, and cooperate with government agencies for investigation and law enforcement. Significant social media intermediaries with over 50 lakh users are further mandated to trace the origin of sensitive content, implement automated detection tools, publish compliance reports, and maintain a physical presence in India.

The government noted that additional legal safeguards for children are provided through the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, which mandates verifiable parental consent for processing minors’ data, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, which criminalises the use of children in sexual content online. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, further strengthens penalties for cyber-enabled offences, including obscenity, misinformation, and harassment.

Alongside legal and regulatory measures, the government has promoted public awareness through initiatives by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and MeitY campaigns like Cyber Security Awareness Month, Safer Internet Day, and Cyber Jagrookta Diwas. Platforms such as the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and CERT-In provide avenues for reporting cyber crimes and obtaining guidance on internet safety.

MeitY emphasised that India’s approach is a multi-tiered ecosystem of legislation, regulatory oversight, technical monitoring, and public awareness aimed at creating a safer, accountable, and child-friendly digital environment.

This concerted effort comes at a time when children’s online activity has surged, highlighting the urgency for robust preventive and corrective measures to curb risks such as cyberbullying, online grooming, privacy violations, and digital addiction.