BENGALURU: The Karnataka government, in its budget on Friday, proposed banning the use of social media for children under 16 years of age, with the objective of preventing adverse effects of increasing mobile use on children. Karnataka has become the first state in the country to announce the significant move.
Earlier, Andhra Pradesh too had stated that it would make a move similar to countries like Australia and France that approved bills to ban children under 15 from using social media.
Though the state government made the announcement, it did not lay out any Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) or roadmap on who will monitor the children, whether they will be punished for violating the ban etc. While parents and schools are clueless, child rights activists and psychiatrists warn of the implications of this sudden ban.
Shashi Kumar D, General Secretary, Associated Managements of Primary & Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said, “We welcome this move by the state government, but there has to be a systematic road map and SOPs to implement it. To see it implemented soon, they must release SOPs quickly.”
Nagaraj Angadi, a parent whose kid is studying UKG, said, “It is difficult to monitor children on their use of social media. They might enter fake age or date of birth to create IDs on these platforms. Our children also get assignments and homework through WhatsApp. In such cases, it becomes inevitable to give them the mobile.”
Dr Manoj Sharma, Head for SHUT clinic (Service for Healthy Use of Technology), NIMHANS, said, “Ban or no ban is a government decision. However, all the stakeholders need to make children understand that reduction or no use of mobile or social media can benefit them. The lifestyle of the entire family has to be changed. More offline and physical activities must be encouraged. There must be digital fasting practised once a week.”
He revealed that Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) among children will led to sleep deprivation, anxiety and depression.
Educate stakeholders before phone ban for U-16s: Meta
Warning that a ban might have severe implications, he said, “Banning of social media will lead to negative implications. Using some other VPN address and creating fake IDs will lead to more fake accounts, misuse of social media which the government or parents will not be able to curb.”
Vasudev Sharma, a child rights activist, termed it a knee-jerk move. “When Australia and France brought out the ban, there were enough campaigns conducted to create digital literacy and educate their citizens. It has not been done in Karnataka. Before implementing this rule, they must educate stakeholders. Just implementing it will not yield results as there will be no one to take the responsibility of policing it,” he added.
Meta sounds caution
Reacting to the news of social media ban for children in the state, Meta, which runs Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, said,“We want the same thing as lawmakers: safe, positive online experiences for young people and believe parents should decide which apps their teens use, so we support laws that empower parents to approve teen app downloads on the app store. Governments considering bans should be careful not to push teens toward less safe, unregulated sites, or logged out experiences that bypass important protections. We’ll comply with social media bans where they are enforced, but with teens using ~40 apps weekly, targeting a handful of companies won’t keep them safe. Bans should apply equally across the many apps teens use.”