A new bill in India aims to enforce verification, safety, and content restrictions on social media and gaming platforms for children under 18, signalling a shift towards increased parental oversight and stricter data protections.
Children in India could soon face tighter rules on social media and online gaming if a proposed law introduced in Parliament is taken up and passed. The Safeguarding Healthy Internet Environments for Little Digital-Natives Bill, or SHIELD, would require verified parental consent before children under 13 could open accounts, while also setting out wider duties for platforms to verify age and limit children’s exposure to harmful material.
The proposal, introduced by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Baijayant Panda, was due to be tabled in Parliament on Friday but did not come up because the House was adjourned. As a private member’s bill, it has a long legislative path ahead and no immediate legal force. Such bills rarely become law in India, which means the SHIELD provisions would first have to clear debate, scrutiny and voting before any rules could be imposed on platforms.
According to the text outlined in Pragativadi, the bill would define a child as anyone under 18 and would place specific compliance obligations on social media services, online gaming platforms and other digital intermediaries. It also seeks parental-control dashboards that could let guardians monitor activity, adjust privacy settings, set screen-time limits and block access to selected services. The proposal further aims to bar platforms from profiling children or using their data for personalised advertising.
The bill’s restrictions would also extend to content moderation and safety standards. Platforms would be expected to prevent access to pornography, gambling and simulated betting, violent or extremist material and drug-related content. Penalties for breaches could reach ₹10 crore, with repeated or deliberate violations potentially leading to suspension or blocking under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
The proposal arrives as India is already moving towards stricter child-data safeguards under the Digital Personal Data Protection framework. Consently and FRS Labs have reported that the DPDP Rules 2025 require verifiable parental consent before processing data belonging to users under 18, with compliance expected by May 2027. Digital Policy Alert has also noted that the DPDP Amendment Bill 2025 seeks to strengthen age-verification and children’s data protections. Taken together, these measures point to a broader policy shift towards heavier duties for digital platforms and greater parental oversight of children’s online lives.
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