India is weighing whether to ban social media for children under 16. On January 31, a member of parliament named L.S.K. Devarayalu introduced legislation that would prohibit anyone under 16 from creating or maintaining a social media account, placing the entire burden of age verification on platforms rather than parents.

When he explained his reasoning to Reuters, he made two arguments. First, children are becoming addicted to social media. Second, India is one of the world’s largest producers of data for foreign platforms, with companies creating advanced AI systems that effectively turn Indian users into unpaid data providers while strategic and economic benefits are reaped elsewhere.

The proposal is happening in a market that platforms cannot afford to lose.

The Numbers That Matter

India has 750 million smartphones and over a billion internet users, with a large share coming online at a young age. There is no minimum age for social media access. The country is central to the user and advertising strategies of Meta, Google, and X, making it the world’s largest market for Meta and YouTube.

Australia became the first country to ban under-16s from social media in December 2025, removing 4.7 million accounts. France’s National Assembly backed an under-15 ban in January 2026. Spain announced plans for an under-16 restriction on February 3. But India would be the largest market by far to implement age restrictions.

States Are Moving, But They Need Permission

The push isn’t just coming from the national government. The western state of Goa announced this week that officials are studying Australia’s legislation to determine whether a similar ban could be implemented locally, with IT Minister Rohan Khaunte saying the department has already obtained copies of Australia’s law and is reviewing feasibility.

Andhra Pradesh, a southern state governed by Devarayalu’s Telugu Desam Party, formed a ministerial committee in January to assess whether restrictions would be legally and practically workable. IT and Education Minister Nara Lokesh said officials were studying Australia’s framework while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

In December, the Madras High Court urged India’s federal government to consider Australia-style restrictions. India’s Chief Economic Adviser attracted attention on January 30 by saying the country should draft policies on age-based access limits to tackle digital addiction, one day before Devarayalu introduced his bill.

But there’s a jurisdictional problem. Internet governance in India falls under federal law, which means states cannot amend the Information Technology Act or the Digital Personal Data Protection Act on their own. Andhra Pradesh and Goa will need central government support to implement restrictions, and it’s unclear whether that support will materialise.

India’s IT ministry has not responded to requests for comment on the proposed legislation. Devarayalu’s bill is what’s called a private member’s bill, meaning it wasn’t introduced by a government minister. These rarely pass, though they often trigger parliamentary debates and influence future lawmaking.

The Enforcement Question

Meta told Reuters it backs laws for parental oversight but warned that governments considering bans should be careful not to push teens toward less safe, unregulated sites. The company argued that parents, not governments, should decide which apps teenagers use, pointing to Instagram’s Teen Accounts as an example of platform-based protections.

If India moves forward with restrictions, enforcement will be the central challenge. Australia’s ban relies on platforms implementing age verification systems, but the technology remains imperfect and raises privacy concerns about requiring identity documents from all users, not just children.

Devarayalu’s proposed bill places the burden of age verification entirely on platforms. The bill says no one under 16 shall be permitted to create, maintain, or hold a social media account, and those found to have one should have them disabled. Platforms would be responsible for detecting and removing under-16 accounts.

In a country where millions of children share devices with family members, where not everyone has government-issued ID, and where platforms have struggled with age verification even in wealthy countries with strong digital identity systems, this creates practical problems that haven’t been solved anywhere yet.

What This Means Outside India

Watch how Meta, Google, and X respond. If India is serious about restrictions, platforms will need to choose between building age verification systems for their largest growth market or fighting the legislation in court. That choice will signal whether they’re willing to implement similar systems elsewhere or whether they’ll resist age restrictions globally.

For parents making decisions now, this doesn’t change the choice in front of you. India’s debate involves both child protection and concerns about data flows to foreign companies. Whether your country’s government shares either or both of those concerns will depend on local politics and priorities.

If India implements restrictions, other countries with large user bases and concerns about platform power might follow. Brazil, Indonesia, and Nigeria all have massive user populations and governments that have expressed concerns about data flowing to American companies.

What Happens Next

The bill will likely trigger debate in parliament but won’t pass in its current form. Private member’s bills rarely become law. More important is whether the central government takes up the issue and drafts its own legislation, which would have a realistic path to enforcement.

States like Andhra Pradesh and Goa will continue studying Australia’s approach, but they can’t act without federal approval. Watch whether the IT ministry responds and whether the central government launches a formal consultation on age restrictions.

India’s Chief Economic Adviser calling for policies on digital addiction the day before the bill was introduced suggests there may be higher-level interest in the issue, but no concrete steps have been announced.

Australia’s ban took effect in December 2025, and platforms are still working out enforcement. France’s ban is expected to take effect in September 2026. If India moves forward, it won’t happen quickly, and the country will likely wait to see how enforcement works in smaller markets before attempting to implement verification systems for a billion users.

The conversation is happening at the state level, the judicial level, and the parliamentary level simultaneously. Whether that translates into federal action remains unclear.

Sources:

Reuters, “Modi ally proposes social media ban for India’s teens as global debate grows,” January 31, 2026