The Supreme Court has held that children have a fundamental right to access and use the internet, ruling that a blanket ban on their internet use would be disproportionate. It also directed the Centre to establish a national database to identify and facilitate the removal of sexually explicit content depicting minors from digital platforms.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran passed the order on October 15 while hearing a plea filed by the NGO Just Rights for Children Alliance, which highlighted the alarming rise in child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) circulating on social media platforms.
In its 137-page order, the bench said the right to access and use the internet was protected under Articles 21 and 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, which guarantee the right to life and personal liberty and freedom of speech and expression, respectively.
“Our children, irrespective of their age, enjoy the same rights, and to deny the same altogether would be as absurd as saying children below a certain age do not have a conscience worth protecting or a freedom of speech worth expressing,” the court said.
However, the bench clarified that recognising this right did not rule out age-based safeguards. It suggested measures such as greater parental consent and supervision, along with a dedicated “child mode” for social media accounts, while allowing restrictions on services and content inherently harmful to children, including adult websites.
The court emphasised that internet access was particularly important for children in remote areas, for whom it could be the only source of learning and information, as well as children with special needs seeking connection with others.
It also cautioned that age-based restrictions could require the continuous collection and monitoring of sensitive personal data, raising concerns over privacy, surveillance and potential misuse.
Referring to the experience of other jurisdictions, the bench said blanket restrictions had not been proven effective in making children safer. Such bans could instead push them towards unregulated and potentially more dangerous platforms, while discouraging those facing online threats or exploitation from reporting incidents to parents and trusted adults.
“Any blanket restriction on the access to the internet by children is nothing more than unproven measures of proven disproportionality,” the court said, adding that no jurisdiction had demonstrated that children were safer because of such measures.
The bench said restricting children's access to social media would not, by itself, curb the circulation of child sexual abuse material. Instead, effective detection and removal mechanisms, backed by coordinated efforts from digital platforms, law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the courts, were necessary.
Senior advocate HS Phoolka appeared for the NGO, which works on child sexual exploitation, trafficking and child marriage.
The Supreme Court issued a series of directions to address the growing circulation of sexually abusive content involving children on digital platforms.
(With inputs from PTI)
