Age bar should be set for usage of social media : Karnataka High Court

Bengaluru (Karnataka) – While hearing an appeal filed by X Corp (former Twitter) a Bench comprising of Justices Narender and Vijaykumar Patil suggested to the Government that, “Government should consider bringing in an age limit for the use of social media. When a user registers, he will have to give some identification, just like in online gaming where a person not having an Aadhaar Card, etc. cannot join. Why don’t you extend it here too? It will be a boon”. Further Justice Narender said, “Today, school-going children are so addicted to it. I think there should be an age limit, such as in the Excise rules”. “Children may be 17 or 18, but do they have the maturity to judge what is or is not in the interest of the nation? Not only on social media but even on the internet, things should be removed, it corrupts the mind. Ban social media, I will tell you a lot of good will come.”

2. The X Corp has challenged the 30th June order of a single-judge Bench of the Karnataka High Court. In that, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had ordered X to take down some tweets. Earlier, the petition against this order was dismissed. The petition against this ruling was heard.

3. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology circulated 10 Government Orders under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act from 2nd February 2021 to 28th February 2022. Accordingly, X was ordered to delete 1,474 accounts, 175 tweets, 256 channels and one hashtag. Of these, the order in respect of 39 links was challenged by X in the High Court. In this case, the Court has ordered X Corp to pay Rs 50 lakh.

Editorial Viewpoint

Why does the Court have to tell this? Why didn’t the Government realise this itself?