India’s Karnataka signals intent to ban social media for under-16s

Indian state Karnataka, home to the tech hub of Bengaluru, plans to ban children under 16 from using social media, joining a growing global movement that aims to curb young people’s access to online platforms despite questions over enforcement and effectiveness.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah announced the decision during the state’s budget speech on Friday. “To prevent the adverse effects on children from the use of mobile phones, the use of social media will be prohibited for children under the age of 16,” he said. He did not share details on how the restrictions would be enforced.

The Karnataka state government did not hold a consultation on the ban before this announcement, two sources at separate tech companies told TechCrunch.

Governments across the world have been moving to restrict children’s access to social media following years of concerns over how platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram affect young users and vulnerable people. Australia became the first country to ban social media for teenagers last December, and a slew of other countries are pursuing similar plans.

Indonesia said on Friday it would restrict access to “high-risk platforms” such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and Roblox for users under 16. Malaysia has also signaled it is examining similar measures.

The debate has been gaining traction at the national level in India, with officials in Indian states Goa and Andhra Pradesh recently saying they are studying similar restrictions. In December, the Madras High Court urged the federal government to consider Australia-style restrictions on children’s social media use, and a month later, India’s chief economic adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran proposed age-based limits on access to social media platforms he described as “predatory.”

A spokesperson for Meta told TechCrunch that the company supports measures that give parents greater control over teenagers’ app usage, but cautioned against broad social media bans.

“Governments considering bans should be careful not to push teens toward less safe, unregulated sites, or logged-out experiences that bypass important protections — like the default safeguards we offer in Instagram’s Teen Accounts,” the spokesperson said.

Meta said it would comply with bans where they are enforced, but argued that since teenagers use around 40 apps a week on average, restrictions targeting only a handful of platforms would not necessarily improve safety.

Legal experts questioned whether an Indian state has the authority to enforce such restrictions. Aparajita Bharti, founding partner at tech and public policy consulting firm The Quantum Hub, said the announcement appears to be more of a statement of intent than a concrete policy proposal.

“It is unclear whether the Karnataka state government has the legislative authority to undertake such measures,” Bharti told TechCrunch. She added that policymakers should consider India’s unique challenges — such as shared device usage and the digital divide — rather than “blindly follow” models adopted in Western countries.

She added that the Australian ban’s effectiveness remains uncertain, and broader approaches to online safety may be needed.

Kazim Rizvi, founding director of New Delhi-based think tank The Dialogue, said broad regulations concerning internet policies fall largely under India’s federal jurisdiction, potentially limiting the ability of individual states to impose such bans.

“A state can certainly articulate the policy objective of child safety, but a binding, platform-facing ban would be much harder for a state to sustain on its own without running into Centre-State and constitutional questions,” he said.

Digital rights advocates have raised concerns about blanket restrictions on children’s access to social media. Responding to the Karnataka government’s proposal, the Internet Freedom Foundation said such measures raise questions about enforcement and could require age-verification systems that create new privacy risks for users.

The group also warned that broad bans risk restricting children’s access to information and expression, and potentially deepen India’s digital gender divide if families use such measures to keep girls offline.

“Child safety online demands serious, evidence-based policy, not headline-driven prohibitions,” the group said.

India’s IT ministry and the Karnataka chief minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the proposal. Google, Snap, and X also did not respond to requests for comment.