Children Below 18 Will Need Parents' Consent To Create Social Media Accounts

Alankar Mishra

Author

Updated: 28-01-2025 at 7:46 AM

Children Below 18 Will Need Parents' Consent To Create Social Media Accounts

India: The waiting is finally over as the central government has released the draft rules for the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and this update especially for children under 18 is significant.

Now according to the draft, during the registration process, children will be required to have their parents’ consent to create accounts on social media platforms. Besides, the draft also notes that e-commerce sites, social media apps, as well as online gaming platforms will be classified as data fiduciaries.

What Do The Draft Rules Say?

According to the draft rules, every data trust-based has to do what is necessary to ensure that a parent verifies consent before undertaking the processing of personal data belonging to children below 18. In that regard, some technical and organisational measures will be needed to protect children's data.

The rules provide more proof of the need for confirming the identity and the necessity of them being adults. Such verification is achievable by the use of credible identity information, supplied information, or tokens issued by the appropriate state authorities.

No Mention Of Penal Action

It is worth noting that while the draft is devoted to ensuring parental consent of some sort, it fails to stipulate any form of penal action against violations concerning children's data protection. As noted within the Digital Personal Data Protection Regulation 2023 other violations that result in breach of personal data can lead to penalties as high as ₹250 crore.

When Will These Rules Come Into Effect?

Anyone interested can send in their comments until 18th February 2025 and the government will look into the feedback and set the rules afterwards.

Impact on Platforms

These regulations will apply to e-commerce platforms, online gaming businesses, and social media networks which means they need to have a more streamlined and effective system when it comes to verifying whether the user’s parental consent is given and making sure that the data from users younger than 18 years old is protected.

These guidelines and rules try to achieve a balance between young users being online and the safety concern of their personal online information being taken advantage of.

Conclusion

Developing rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 is very important in making the online world secure for kids and safeguarding their data. Thus, there is a requirement for parental consent while the rules target the platforms so that children are guarded against online harm as well as responsible data management is encouraged.

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