Andhra calls tech giants for talks as it mulls social media ban for children
Last week, Andhra Pradesh’s IT and Education Minister Nara Lokesh said the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led government was considering bringing a law to ban social media for children under the age of 16.
To address growing concerns over online safety, especially for women and children, the Andhra Pradesh government, which is considering banning social media use by children, has decided to invite major global social media platforms for a meeting on the issue.
Representatives of Meta, X, Google and ShareChat are being contacted to invite them to talks, officials said.
Last week, Andhra Pradesh’s IT and Education Minister Nara Lokesh said the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led government was considering bringing a law to ban social media for children under the age of 16, along the lines of the law passed in Australia last year. A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by him has been set up to study the proposal.
“Social media platforms will be invited to the next meeting of the GoM on Social Media to deliberate on making digital platforms safer, especially for women and children,” Lokesh said Thursday.
Chairing the GoM meeting, Lokesh said trust in social media platforms was steadily eroding, with children increasingly slipping into excessive and addictive usage that is adversely impacting their education and attention spans, while women continue to face relentless online abuse and harassment.
“This situation cannot be ignored any longer,” the minister said. As part of the roadmap outlined by the GoM, the Andhra Pradesh government has ordered a comprehensive study of existing legal frameworks, with a special focus on age-appropriate access to social media platforms. The study will include a detailed, country-wise analysis of global best practices adopted across multiple jurisdictions.
In a key step towards collaborative regulation, representatives of leading social media and technology companies, including Meta, X, Google and ShareChat, will be invited to participate in the upcoming GoM meeting, officials said. The engagement will focus on platform accountability, safeguards for minors, mechanisms to curb online abuse, and evolving international norms in digital governance.
The Andhra Pradesh government reiterated that the objective is not restrictive regulation, but the creation of a safer and more responsible digital ecosystem. The roadmap emphasises protecting children from harmful and addictive online content, ensuring dignity and safety for women, and restoring public trust in social media platforms.
The GoM, headed by Lokesh, comprises Home Minister Anita Vangalapudi, Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav, and I&PR Minister Kolusu Parthasarathi. The GoM is currently studying cases of children under 16 who have become victims of social media or have misused it.
The Goa government has also previously said it was studying the possibility of implementing an Australia-like law banning social media for children under the age of 16.
The Australian law, which took effect in December last year, is called the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act, and it states that age-restricted platforms will be expected to take “reasonable” steps to find existing accounts held by under-16s and deactivate or remove those accounts, prevent them from opening new accounts, including prohibiting any workarounds that may allow under-16s to bypass the restrictions. Platforms also need to have processes to correct errors if someone is mistakenly missed by or included in the restrictions, so no one’s account is removed unfairly.
Sreenivas Janyala is a Deputy Associate Editor at The Indian Express, where he serves as one of the most authoritative voices on the socio-political and economic landscape of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. With a career spanning over two decades in mainstream journalism, he provides deep-dive analysis and frontline reporting on the intricate dynamics of South Indian governance.
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Regional Specialization: Based in Hyderabad, Sreenivas has spent more than 20 years documenting the evolution of the Telugu-speaking states. His reporting was foundational during the historic Telangana statehood movement and continues to track the post-bifurcation development of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
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Crisis & Health Reporting: Led the publication's ground-level coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in South India and major industrial incidents, such as the Vizag gas leak.
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