HYDERABAD: India needs a dedicated legal framework to protect children from online harms, with stronger accountability for digital platforms, age-appropriate safeguards and privacy protections, according to a report published by NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, and the Indian Governance and Policy Project (IGAP).
Titled The Child Safety Imperative: Age-Appropriate Digital Governance Pathways for India, the report states that restricting children’s access to social media alone may not adequately address online risks. Instead, it recommends combining age-appropriate access measures with enforceable obligations on platforms to make their services safer for children.
The report was prepared under the academic leadership and supervision of NALSAR Vice-Chancellor Professor Srikrishna Deva Rao, Professor Krishna Ravi Srinivas, Director of the university’s Centre of Excellence in AI and Law, and Dr D Bala Krishna, Coordinator of the Centre for Child and Youth Justice.
The report comes amid growing international debate over minimum-age requirements for social media accounts and technology companies’ responsibility to protect young users. As of September 30, 2026, 57 jurisdictions were considering, proposing or implementing age-based social media regulations. Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia are among the countries that have introduced measures to strengthen online child safety, though their regulatory approaches differ.
Online risks extend beyond unlawful content and cybercrime to include cyberbullying, online grooming, exposure to harmful content, privacy violations, behavioural profiling and platform designs that encourage excessive engagement, the report noted.
Plugging gaps in child online safety
While India already has laws addressing online abuse, exploitation, cybercrime and data misuse, the report identified gaps in tackling systemic risks arising from recommendation algorithms, persuasive interface designs and engagement-driven business models.
It recommends a dedicated, principle-based framework for online child safety, centred on safety-by-design obligations. It also cautions against adopting age thresholds developed in other countries without considering India’s developmental evidence and child welfare requirements.
The report called for child-rights impact assessments before regulatory measures are introduced. These should examine whether restrictions could unintentionally limit children’s access to educational resources, health information, peer-support communities and other beneficial online services. Children and adolescents should also be consulted during policy formulation, it said, adding that the safest online experience should be the default rather than leaving protective measures to individual users or parents.
The report further recommended strengthening regulatory institutions through technical expertise, operational autonomy and adequate financial resources, alongside better coordination among agencies handling reports of child sexual exploitation and abuse material.
It also called for expanding digital literacy programmes to cover children, parents, teachers, caregivers and community organisations. Schools could integrate online safety into student-wellbeing programmes, with counsellors trained to address cyberbullying, online harassment, image-based abuse, online scams and risks associated with artificial intelligence.