With minors entering social media unchecked, the time has come to make age verification, parental consent and safety safeguards part of the platform’s architecture

The Supreme Court’s notice to the Centre this week, on a petition seeking safeguards for minors on social media, could not have come sooner. Hearing the plea by NGO Just Rights for Children Alliance, Justice Joymalya Bagchi remarked from the bench that shielding children online will need something like firewalls - a fitting image for a long-standing design failure.

The petition’s legal argument is simple: under Section 11 of the Indian Contract Act, a minor cannot enter into a binding contract, yet millions of children under 18 click “I agree” to a platform’s terms daily, with no age check and no parental consent. The petitioners want protection........

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