Andhra, Karnataka become first Indian states to ban social media for children

Amaravati/Bengaluru: Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka on Friday became the first two Indian states to ban the use of social media for children, albeit in different age groups.

Australia and Indonesia have effected similar bans, amid a global debate over the need to safeguard children from the addiction to social media.

While the TDP-led NDA ruled Andhra Pradesh said social media will be prohibited for children below 13 years of age, the Congress government in neighbouring Karnataka said the ban will apply for those under 16.

Addressing the Andhra assembly, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said they were debating whether to extend this ban to children between 13 and 16 years of age.

"Definitely, we will make sure that within 90 days those below 13 years of age are not able to use social media," said Naidu.

The CM said his government will take a call on banning social media for teenagers between 13 and 16 years.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced a ban on use of social media for those under the age of 16 years.

The move aimed at preventing adverse effects on children was met with both encouragement and skepticism.

"With the objective of preventing adverse effects of increasing mobile usage on children, usage of social media will be banned for children under the age of 16," Siddaramaiah said while presenting the state Budget for 2026-27 in the state Assembly in Bengaluru.

Later, addressing a press conference, he said children below 16 years can keep a mobile phone, but they cannot use social media.

"We will ban social media for them," he said.

Responding to queries on how will it be regulated — in schools, colleges or at home, Siddaramaiah said, "We will formulate a programme for that. Once the programme is finalised, we will inform you."

In January, state minister for Electronics, IT/BT Priyank Kharge had informed the Legislative Assembly that the 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 age-based access to online platforms should be considered while also 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 below 16 may be good in some ways, but implementing it would be difficult.

Appreciating the move, Dr Saritha Nagaraj, Consultant – Psychology and Child Development, Motherhood Hospital in the city 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.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP from the state 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.

Aparajita Bharti, Founding Partner at the Quantum Hub opined 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.

In 2025, Australia became the first country to ban social media for children under 16 by blocking access to platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

Indonesia has also banned social media for children under the age of 16.