India Supreme Court: Minor Social Media Accounts Under Scrutiny

• The India Supreme Court has sought the Centre's response to a PIL demanding regulation of independent social media accounts for minors under 18.
• The PIL, filed by the Just Right For Children Alliance, argues that minors lack the statutory capacity to contract under Section 11 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, making their platform agreements void.
• Petitioners highlight risks like online grooming, sexual exploitation, and data misuse, advocating for verifiable age-assurance mechanisms and parental-controlled access for children.
• The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, requires parental consent for processing children's data, but the IT Intermediary Guidelines 2021 are silent on minors' contractual capacity.
• A recent incident involving two minor girls lured through social platforms for trafficking underscores the critical need for stronger safeguards.

The absence of robust safeguards in the digital realm exposes children to significant, foreseeable dangers, including online grooming, sexual exploitation, trafficking, and behavioral profiling.

The India Supreme Court has initiated proceedings concerning the independent use of social media platforms by individuals under the age of eighteen. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Just Right For Children Alliance prompted the court to seek a response from the Central government regarding the regulation of these accounts. The petition specifically calls for digital platforms and social media intermediaries to implement robust and verifiable age-assurance mechanisms, arguing against allowing minors to create and maintain independent accounts.

During the initial hearing, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V Mohana issued notices to the Centre, emphasizing the need for stronger protections by remarking, "We need some safeguards in India." The core contention of the PIL revolves around the statutory incapacity of minors to enter into contracts, a principle enshrined in Indian law. The petitioners assert that if a person is legally incompetent to independently form a contract, they should not be permitted to hold social media accounts, which inherently involve agreeing to terms of service and privacy policies.

The legal foundation of the PIL rests heavily on Section 11 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, which stipulates that agreements entered into by minors are considered void ab initio. This legal position is further supported by Section 3 of the Majority Act, 1875, which defines the age of majority as eighteen years. Despite this clear statutory framework, the petition highlights that social media intermediaries and digital platforms operating in India commonly permit individuals as young as thirteen to create and manage independent accounts. This process typically involves users self-declaring their age or date of birth and subsequently accepting contractual terms such as Terms of Service, User Agreements, and Privacy Policies, which govern the relationship between the platform and its users.

The PIL also draws attention to other relevant legislation, including the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. This Act specifically acknowledges the heightened vulnerability of children in the digital environment, with Section 9 mandating verifiable parental or lawful guardian consent for processing a child's personal data. Furthermore, the Act imposes restrictions on detrimental processing, tracking, behavioral monitoring, and targeted advertising directed at children. Conversely, the petition points out a significant gap in the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, noting their silence on the critical issue of a minor's contractual capacity to access and utilize services offered by social media intermediaries or other digital platforms.

The absence of robust safeguards in the digital realm exposes children to significant, foreseeable dangers, including online grooming, sexual exploitation, trafficking, and behavioral profiling. The PIL underscores a range of potential harms, such as the misuse of personal data, cyberbullying, and exposure to age-inappropriate content, all of which can severely impact a child's safety, dignity, development, and overall well-being. The petitioners are seeking directives for the Union of India to ensure that individuals under eighteen years of age are prevented from entering into direct contracts with various digital platforms, encompassing social media, online gaming, content-sharing, live-streaming, and other user-generated content services.

Instead, the PIL proposes a regulatory framework that would allow minors access to lawful, educational, and age-appropriate digital content through accounts that are maintained and controlled by their parents or legal guardians. The urgency of these concerns is underscored by a recent incident cited in the plea, where two minor girls were allegedly lured through platforms like Pinterest and a language-learning application with false promises of becoming K-pop idols in South Korea. These girls were reportedly persuaded to leave their homes and were in transit towards Siliguri and the international border region as part of a pre-planned journey, highlighting the real-world dangers associated with unregulated minor social media accounts and the need for enhanced age assurance social media India protocols to combat online grooming minors India.

Digital platforms and social media intermediaries operating in India should closely monitor this Supreme Court case, as it could lead to new regulatory requirements for age verification, parental consent, and contractual capacity for users under 18, significantly impacting their terms of service, data privacy practices, and compliance obligations.

Source: Reporting based on original court filings.