Madras High Court Urges Centre: Consider Australia-Like Law to Ban Under-16s from Social Media

• Madras High Court suggested the Centre consider an Australia-like law to ban social media for children under 16, citing vulnerability to harmful online content.
• The observation came during the disposal of a 2018 PIL filed by S Vijayakumar seeking parental controls against pornographic content.
• A division bench of Justice G Jayachandran and Justice KK Ramakrishnan noted the need for stronger institutional safeguards despite parental responsibility.
• The court highlighted that authorities' counter-affidavits failed to convince it of adequate discharge of statutory responsibilities.
• Until new legislation, the court advised authorities to accelerate awareness campaigns for vulnerable groups.

Why It Matters: Madras High Court pushes for a law to protect under-16s from social media harm, like Australia.