Bengaluru, March 6 – Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced on Friday that social media use would be banned for individuals under the age of 16, aiming to prevent its adverse effects on children.
While a majority of parents welcomed the move, they expressed concerns about its practical implementation.
"With the objective of preventing the adverse effects of increasing mobile usage on children, social media use will be banned for children under the age of 16," Siddaramaiah said while presenting the state budget for 2026-27.
Later, addressing a press conference, he said that children under 16 can use mobile phones, but not social media.
"We will ban social media for them," he stated.
Responding to questions about how this would be regulated—in schools, colleges, or at home—Siddaramaiah said, "We will formulate a program for that. Once the program is finalized, we will inform you."
In January this year, Karnataka Minister for Electronics, IT/BT, Priyank Kharge, had informed the Legislative Assembly that the state government was holding consultations regarding measures to be put in place for responsible use of artificial intelligence and social media, especially among children.
The central government’s Economic Survey tabled in Parliament in January this year said that age-based access to online platforms should be considered, along with cutting down online teaching to avoid digital addiction.
Manohar N H, a resident of Jalahalli in Bengaluru, who has two school-going children—a 16-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl—said that restricting social media for children under 16 may be good in some ways, but implementing it would be difficult.
"These days, many schools and colleges use apps for teaching. For example, SSLC and PUC students—especially those in second PUC—already rely heavily on apps for classes and communication. Controlling social media use will be very challenging, particularly in government schools and colleges. The rule may be introduced, but I doubt it will succeed; the success rate may be only around 10 per cent," he said.
Dr Saritha Nagaraj, Consultant – Psychology and Child Development, Motherhood Hospital, said that with this, the risk of poor mental health among children and teenagers—including symptoms of depression, anxiety, poor sleep, and body image issues arising from unhealthy comparisons, which can further lead to disordered eating—will be reduced.
"Their cognitive performance and emotional regulation are also likely to improve. Exposure to dangerous content will decrease, and this could help improve attention span as well as academic performance," she added.
Dr Rakshay Shetty, Clinical Director, Pediatric Services Head, Pediatric Intensive Care Services, Rainbow Children's Hospital, said that while there are a lot of disadvantages of excess use of mobile devices in children, considering its ill-effects on their psychology, at the same time it provides a lot of practical utility for parents, teachers and children.
"We need to look at a balanced solution because a blanket ban can be counterproductive since implementing it is not practical and it might remain like a paper tiger where there is a rule but no one follows it. Instead, giving guidelines on how to practically use mobile devices and limit their excess use would be more practical," he said.
More than the government, the role of parents is important in monitoring children, understanding the harms of excess mobile use, cyber bullying and addiction to online games, and protecting them, he added.
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Lahar Singh Siroya, however, welcomed the move in a social media post on 'X' saying he had raised this issue via a special mention in parliament.
"Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi had also spoken about securing the interest of our younger generations at the AI summit, recently. I had further asked for restrictions on smartphone use among children in my Parliament speech. I hope this too will be looked into seriously," he said.
Upasna Dash, Founder and CEO, Jajabor Brand Consultancy, said this move is likely to have ripple effects across the ecosystem and change the way advertisers access this age group.
However, it is important to recognise that brands and products targeting this demographic existed long before social media, with many cult brands in the 1990s built through word of mouth and different forms of advertising, she said.
Aparajita Bharti, Founding Partner at the Quantum Hub, expressed that a social media ban, however, is unlikely to have the desired effect in India given the high incidence of shared device usage in households. Further, it is also an imperfect measure, given that it is hard to define 'social media' and the assumption that only a certain kind of platforms are harmful for children is not grounded in evidence.
"The government in India should take a more nuanced view of the issue as we have a huge digital divide, which often impact young people help bridge it. Regulation must focus on making the entire internet safe for children rather than focusing on just one type of platforms, as AI and gaming related harms are also becoming evident," she said.
In 2025, Australia became the first country to ban social media for children under 16 by blocking access to platforms including TikTok, YouTube and Instagram and Facebook.
Indonesia has also announced to ban social media for children under the age of 16.