India should consider age-based limits for social media, chief economic adviser says

(Reuters)

NEW DELHI, Jan 29 – India’s chief economic adviser called on the government to set age-based limits on access to social media apps to counter “digital addiction”, cautioning against use of platforms by children in the largest user market for Meta and YouTube.

A shift in India would align with a growing global trend. Australia last year became the first nation to enforce a social media ban for children under 16. France’s National Assembly on Monday backed legislation to ban children under 15 from social media and Britain, Denmark and Greece are studying the issue.

The adviser made the call in India’s annual economic survey and recommended families promote screen-time limits, device-free hours and shared offline activities.

“Policies on age-based access limits may be considered, as younger users are more vulnerable to compulsive use and harmful content,” the adviser, V. Anantha Nageswaran, wrote in the survey.

“Platforms should be made responsible for enforcing age verification and age-appropriate defaults,” he added.

India, a key growth market for social media apps, does not have a unified national minimum age for social media access. The country is also the No. 2 smartphone market in the world with 750 million devices, and has 1 billion internet users.

The recommendations of the adviser are not binding on the Indian government, but are typically considered seriously in policy deliberations by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.