Resilient Digital Childhood |
India’s debate over children’s digital safety has reached a critical turning point. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have proposed blanket social media bans for teenagers, while the Union government reportedly opts for a graded approach ~ a separate law, expected in the monsoon session, enforcing restrictions across varying age groups with time-based limits and mandatory parental consent. This marks a genuine awakening. However, restricting social media alone addresses only a fraction of the problem; it merely plugs one leak in a sinking ship.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in 2021, issued General Comment No. 25 directing governments to protect children from online violence, sexual exploitation, harassment, and gambling. Effective legislation must regulate four other major threats beyond social media: exposure to unrestricted adult pornography, graphic violent content, addictive short-video quicksands, and predatory gaming-betting hybrids. If expanded thoughtfully, the Centre’s proposed legislation can become a historic ‘State Shield’ for Indian families. Adult pornography is viewed by 97 per cent of boys and 78 per cent of girls aged 12-18, according to the ‘Unprotected From Porn’ report (Carroll et al., 2025). In India, a LocalCircles survey found one in two parents had seen their children exposed to inappropriate content online.
Texas enacted law on ‘Liability for Allowing Minors to Access Pornographic Material’ (H. B. 1181) in 2023 to address the concern that the internet makes too accessible to minors “hardcore pornographic content,” depicting “sexual violence, incest, physical aggression, sexual assault,” which has harmful “developmental effects on the brain,” and leads to “risky sexual behaviors.” It requires pornographic websites to verify ages with a quick photograph or video or face penalties up to $250,000. The adult privacy vs. child safety debate was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton (2025) by establishing that the state’s “compelling interest in protecting minors from physical and psychological harms” outweighs the adults’ right to privacy.
The Court ruled that requiring age verification is merely an........