NEW DELHI: As Australia announced on Thursday that children under 16 will soon be banned from using social media due to the harmful effects it has on them, a recent survey in India shows that parents are similarly seeking governmental intervention. They are urging the government to implement a data protection law that would mandate parental consent for children under 18 when they join social media, OTT/video, and online gaming platforms.The survey, conducted by LocalCircles, India’s leading community social media platform, revealed that one in two urban Indian parents reported that their children are addicted to social media, OTT, and online gaming platforms, which has resulted in aggressive, impatient, and lethargic behaviour. The survey found that children aged between 9 and 17 are spending between three and six hours daily on these platforms, with many children exceeding six hours.The study, which included responses from 368 urban districts in India, highlighted that the most popular platforms among children include YouTube, Prime Video, Netflix, and Hotstar, followed closely by social media apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Discord, Snapchat, and Be Real. Parents have expressed increasing concern over their children’s changing behaviour, with many describing their children as more aggressive since they became hooked on these platforms. As a result, a significant portion of parents are urging the Indian government to adopt similar measures to those in Australia and other countries. Specifically, they are calling for a law that ensures mandatory parental consent for children under 18 when they join social media, OTT/video, and online gaming platforms. The Norwegian government, for example, has proposed increasing the minimum age for social media use to 15.Dr. Yatan Pal Singh Balhara, Professor of Psychiatry at the Behavioral Addictions Clinic (BAC) at AIIMS, said, “It is high time that we realize the potential adverse consequences of excessive use of social media, OTT, and gaming among children and adolescents. We need to prioritise this as an important public health concern. There is a need to create awareness, invest in prevention-oriented strategies, and strengthen treatment services for those with addiction. Everyone needs to come on board to make meaningful change.” He added, “The bottom line is we need to ensure safe and healthy internet-related behaviour among our children and adolescents.”Sachin Taparia, founder of LocalCircles, also shared his concerns, pointing to the need for the Indian government to adopt similar laws, especially in light of Australia’s plans to ban social media for children under 16. Taparia stated that LocalCircles would be sharing the survey findings with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), UIDAI, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), all of whom have already raised concerns with MeitY regarding the mandatory KYC-based verification of children’s age under the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act.The survey results indicated that 66 per cent of respondents believe a data protection law should be passed to ensure that parental consent is mandatory when children under 18 join social media, OTT/video, and online gaming platforms. Many parents also support implementing mandatory parental consent through Aadhaar authentication.
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