VIJAYAWADA: Minister for HRD and IT Nara Lokesh has directed officials to formulate guidelines to restrict the usage of social media by minor children.
Chairing the meeting of the Committee of Ministers tasked with strengthening social media accountability at the State Secretariat on Wednesday, Lokesh suggested that they study policies being implemented in Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and France on banning social media to children. He wanted them to prepare the rules as per the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.
Speaking on the occasion, Civil Supplies Minister Nadendla Manohar informed that access to social media will be given to those aged above 16 years through e-KYC linkage with the details of My digital ID and passport.
Though the Committee of Ministers arrived to a decision to keep the children far from social media, no final decision was taken on age limit and the officials were told to go through the Act in other countries with regard to the age limit.
Lokesh said stern measures should be taken to tackle those posting fake news in social media, and also to control habitual offenders posting derogatory content in the name of caste, religion and region.
He wanted them to invite social media platform compliance officers from Google, Meta, Twitter and other agencies to the next meeting.
During the meeting it was decided to issue a notification for appointment of State level adjudicating officer as per Section 46 of IT Act to take action against those making hatred comments on social media. The officials informed that action is being taken in some cases through the Sahayog portal of the Union government.
Ministers Vangalapudi Anitha (Home), Kolusu Parthasarathy (I&PR), Y Satya Kumar Yadav (Health) and senior officials attended the meeting.