NEW DELHI, Jan 29 (Reuters) – 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 years old from social media and Britain, Denmark, Spain 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.
Facebook operator Meta, YouTube-parent Alphabet and X did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
India, a key growth market for social media apps, does not have a unified national minimum age for social media access.
The federal recommendation also follows growing momentum within individual Indian states to regulate screen time. The coastal state of Goa and southern state Andhra Pradesh recently announced they are studying Australia’s regulatory framework to potentially ban social media for children.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar, Aditi Shah and Munsif Vengattil; Editing by Aditya Kalra, Christopher Cushing and Neil Fullick)
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