Overview
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Australia’s law at the Australia‑India leaders’ summit on July 9, saying India was “learning a lot” and prompting widespread reporting that a national age‑based curbs could be under review.
- The Centre has already taken regulatory steps against platforms by directing the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to order Meta/Instagram to remove content and ads that enable child sexual abuse material.
- State governments have proposed their own limits, with Karnataka targeting under‑16s, Andhra Pradesh proposing under‑13 rules and Goa exploring similar measures, but states lack clear constitutional power to impose nationwide communications rules.
- Practical tests and studies show major hurdles for an Australia‑style ban: platforms rely on AI face‑based age estimates that researchers and shadow testers found easy to bypass, many under‑16s still use services under Australia’s law, and high VPN use plus shared or adult accounts create circumvention risks.
- Any move to copy Australia would force trade‑offs for hundreds of millions of young internet users because robust age checks would likely need ID or biometric verification, which raises privacy and surveillance concerns and would require platforms to show concrete evidence of compliance before regulators accept enforcement.