The Delhi High Court on Thursday observed that banning or restricting children’s access to social media is a matter of government policy and should be decided by the executive after consulting all stakeholders.
A Division Bench of Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora disposed of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking restrictions on children’s access to social media and stronger measures to prevent the circulation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).
The Court directed the Central government to consider the concerns raised in the PIL, along with suggestions made by the petitioners, and consult relevant stakeholders, including social media platforms, before taking an appropriate decision.
The Bench noted that the matter fell strictly within the ambit of government policy. Adding that it was not for the Court to direct the government to ban particular platforms or content. The Court also clarified that it was not prescribing any timeline for the government to take a decision.
The PIL was filed by Kirti Dua, a mother of a three-year-old child, and paediatrician Dr Sharad Gupta. It argued that children’s unchecked exposure to inappropriate and sexually explicit content on social media violates their right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution and the State’s obligation under Article 39(f) to protect children from exploitation.
The petitioners also relied on the Economic Survey 2025-26, which highlighted concerns relating to increasing social media addiction and mental health issues among young people. They argued that voluntary measures were insufficient and called for binding legislation to address the problem.
Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for Meta, told the Court that Facebook and Instagram had implemented extensive measures to detect and remove CSAM. He submitted that the platforms had achieved proactive detection rates of 99.5% on Facebook and 95.2% on Instagram.
Datar also pointed to technological tools, including image-matching and other detection systems, while acknowledging that some offending material could still evade safeguards and subsequently appear in the public domain.
Senior Advocate Pinky Anand and Advocate Anshul Gupta, appearing for the petitioners, sought directions requiring Meta to strengthen technological safeguards and audit mechanisms to identify and remove offending content. The Bench declined to issue such policy directions and left the matter for consideration by the Central government.
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