The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has called on civil society organisations and technology policy think tanks to a closed-door roundtable to discuss online child safety, age-gating and platform regulation at the ministry’s office in New Delhi on July 27.
Event Context
The invite said, “This grounded effort will allow your organisation to play a meaningful role in informing MeitY’s regulatory approach going forward.”
However, a government official on the condition of anonymity said the consultation itself should not be interpreted as a signal that the government has decided to introduce measures for social media platforms. The exercise is intended to gather evidence before any policy decisions are taken.
Separately, MeitY is also looking to conduct a study to assess the harms children face on social media and understand the current landscape before deciding whether any intervention is necessary on the regulation front, said another government official.
To be sure, the July 27 consultation is separate from the study the ministry is planning.
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One of the officials quoted above added that MeitY in the past has held multiple consultations with intermediaries like Google, Meta, Snapchat, etc. to discuss the matter but, for now, has ruled out the possibility of a brand new law to ban social media for children, although other policy interventions remain under discussion.
The invitation for the consultation has been sent out to organisations working closely with children on the ground and policy-level organisations working on tech policy.
“Bringing both together in one conversation will help build a shared understanding of the issue and help inform regulation that is grounded in evidence and lived experience,” said the invite.
A person aware of the matter said the list of invitees include tech policy and digital rights organisations like The Dialogue, Internet Freedom Foundation, The Quantum Hub among others.
Team Analysis
During one of these consultations, social media platform Snapchat had proposed graded restrictions which would block only certain kinds of content for children, an approach that the government had considered as one of several policy options, said the above quoted official.
July 27 consultation
Match Outlook
The consultation in collaboration with social impact consultancy Space2Grow will be presided over by MeitY secretary S Krishnan, as per the invite sent to organisations and seen by HT.
The organisations in attendance will be asked to come prepared with a brief written submission drawn from their fieldwork, community-level work, policy work with children, covering the challenges children face around safety and regulation, what they are hearing directly from children and communities, and what possible solutions they propose towards the key points of age gating and age assurance in the context of digital spaces for children.
Space2Grow declined to comment on the story.
