The Supreme Court on Wednesday, November 4, issued notice to the Central Government and Meta Platforms on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking regulatory intervention against social media algorithms and design features allegedly engineered to encourage compulsive usage among children.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana sought responses in the petition filed by Sreerupa Chowdhury, which raises concerns over the impact of algorithm-driven platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, on the mental health, privacy and overall well-being of minors.
The petition alleges that social media platforms employ engagement-maximising design features, commonly described as ‘dark patterns’, to keep users hooked to their services. These include infinite scrolling, automatically playing videos and reels, persistent push notifications and variable reward mechanisms that allegedly exploit users’ behavioural patterns to prolong screen time.
According to the petitioner, such features are not merely incidental aspects of platform design but mechanisms that can foster compulsive digital behaviour among children and adolescents. The plea highlights the potential consequences, including behavioural addiction, cognitive impairment, sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression and even self-harm ideation.
The petition also flags the alleged inadequacy of existing age-verification mechanisms, which purportedly enable children below 13 years of age to access social media platforms without effective safeguards.
It further raises concerns over children’s vulnerability to online grooming, sexual exploitation and exposure to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), contending that the existing regulatory framework has failed to adequately address the risks arising from the design and functioning of these platforms.
The petitioner has argued that Meta has adopted more stringent safety-by-design measures in certain Western jurisdictions following regulatory scrutiny but has not introduced comparable safeguards for Indian users.
The plea seeks the development of a comprehensive national regulatory framework to address these concerns. Among other reliefs, it calls for independent audits of social media algorithms, effective age-verification systems, stronger safeguards against compulsive-use features and measures to prevent minors from accessing harmful online content.
It also seeks appropriate directions to the Union Government and concerned regulatory authorities to ensure that children’s safety is incorporated into the design and operation of digital platforms, rather than being addressed only after harm has occurred.
Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra appeared for the petitioner along with a team of advocates.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had also issued notice on a separate PIL filed by Indore-based Emerald Heights International School and its Director, Siddharth Singh, seeking a comprehensive regulatory framework to restrict children’s access to social media and protect them from cyberbullying, sexual exploitation and compulsive digital dependency.
The latest proceedings add to the growing judicial scrutiny of the impact of social media platforms on children and the need for stronger institutional safeguards in the digital environment.
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