BJP MP Lists Bill on Restriction of Social Media for Children, Pg11

Key Highlights:

• BJP MP Baijayant Panda introduced the Safeguarding Healthy Internet Environments for Little Digital-Natives (Shield) Bill, 2025 as a private member's Bill in the Lok Sabha.
• The Bill proposes that children under 13 years of age cannot create accounts on social media or online gaming platforms without verified parental consent.
• It mandates that intermediaries provide parental control dashboards and remove harmful content within 36 hours, or 24 hours if it involves child sexual material.
• Non-compliance by intermediaries could lead to penalties of up to ₹10 crore, with wilful violations potentially resulting in service suspension or blocking under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Detailed Insights:

• The Shield Bill, 2025 aims to address concerns that social media algorithms foster addiction and reinforce extreme viewpoints, which are particularly harmful to young teenagers and children.
• It requires every application to feature a "Report Child Harm" button, accessible to all users, for reporting inappropriate content.
• Officers designated by intermediaries who fail to observe due diligence in child safety or content removal obligations could face personal liability, including imprisonment for up to three years and a fine of ₹10 lakh.
• The Bill mandates an annual child safety and risk assessment process to identify exposure risks related to content algorithms and interactions on a service, which must be submitted to the government.
• Information collected about users for age verification cannot be used for behavioral profiling, as per the Bill's provisions.
• The introduction of this Bill aligns with a growing global trend of countries imposing restrictions on social media access for minors.
• A Private Member's Bill is a legislative proposal introduced by any Member of Parliament who is not a minister, reflecting individual legislative initiative rather than the government's official agenda.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Private Member's Bill: A legislative proposal introduced in either House of Parliament by a Member of Parliament who is not a minister.
• Intermediary: Any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores, or transmits electronic records or provides any service with respect to that record, including social media platforms, ISPs, and search engines.
• Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000: Empowers the Central Government to block public access to any information through any computer resource in the interest of national security, public order, or other specified grounds.