Australia recently decided to serve as a precedent and planned to restrict children under the age of sixteen from using social sites, to which access without parental permission was impossible. The action designed to address the problematic impact of social media on developing brains has caused an international controversy.

Should India, which has a vast young internet user base, do the same? Let’s break it down.

Why Australia Took the Step

Australia’s approach has arisen due to growing concern with the effects that social media has on the childhood mental health and safety of these children. Studies have consistently highlighted the dangers posed by restricted access. About cyberbullying and deepfake videos, viewing obscene materials, and program addiction to social networks such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.

Australia wants to ensure that kids are safe online by enforcing even tighter age restrictions, which then means shifting the responsibility onto tech giants to do just that.

Social Media Marketing in India

India is the second-largest internet market across the world, with half a billion active social media users. Out of these, a good number are below the age of sixteen, and many make use of social media platforms unsupervised. Besides, sites such as Facebook and Instagram state that no person under 13 years old can create an account, but the filter is rather simple to deceive.

Children in India are living under the threat of becoming victims of social networking sites' evil side. Outcome information shows that childhood victimisation through online technologies continues to increase in harassment, grooming, and dangerous trends. Also, these sustainable platforms have negative impacts on the mental health of young users since they become addicted and develop anxiety, depression, and distorted self-esteem.

Reasons Why Children Below the Age of 16 Should Be Barred from Using Social Media

• Mental Health Concerns: Social media should not be used by youths, as it has a very big negative impact on them. Some of the showcased impairments of mental health by platforms include constant comparison, FOMO, and cyberbullying. This made me think that a ban could help to lower people’s exposure to these kinds of effects.

• Focus on Education: By spending much time on social media, children neglect their books and consequently underachieve academically as well as intellectually. Access restrictions mean students can better concentrate on learning and activities outside of class.

• Enhanced Online Safety: It is common to watch children and teenagers become victims of dangerous people, fraudsters, and undesirable content. If social media is banned for this age group, it would be easier to control these risks.

While the benefits are evident, enforcing such a ban in India comes with its own set of challenges:

1. Parental supervision: Unlike Australia, where internet usage is somewhat controlled, a large number of Indian parents are ill-prepared to manage their children’s online activities.
2. Technological Loopholes: Enforcement is very difficult since the more innovative children equally have the know-how to handle VPNs or fake IDs.
3. Cultural Differences: Given the extremely diverse composition of the Indian population and increased access to the World Wide Web even in rural areas, a complete ban might be viewed unfavourably and quite impracticable to implement.
4. An effect on learning opportunities: Social media is not all evil—it offers ideas and information-sharing podiums, experiences, and people. Saying the least, its complete banning can harm children and deprive them of these or those benefits.

Striking a Balance: The Way Forward

Total prohibition could therefore not be the most probable and practical intervention for India. Instead, a balanced approach could work better:

• Parental Control Tools: Explain to technology-based companies that they should improve the features of parental control so that parents may regulate their children’s use of the technology.
• Digital Literacy Programs: Explain to both parents and children about the dangers of social media and how to be safe with it. There is much that schools can do to support this.
• Stronger Age Verification: Companies should be made to step up efforts to insist that children below the age of 16 cannot freely open accounts on these platforms.
• Regulation Over Ban: For minors, the government should propose a ban on the use of social media, similar to gaming, and allow restricted time only.

Is India Ready?

Before emulating Australia in this regard, India needs to give due consideration to a host of factors that pertain to demographics and technology. Such a tact may not be the best approach, as overreacting with something such as a total ban might open up other cans of worms. But it is not possible to dismiss this problem altogether as well.

To increase protective factors to improve children’s online safety, the government, tech companies, parents, and educators should come together and work as one. Finding the correct balance between protection and availability is the issue.

Conclusion

The proposal to extend the ban on social media sites in India to children who are below sixteen years of age should be a serious option of consideration, but this should be done under certain conditions. Thus, India can draw lessons from the method that Australia has chosen to make the transition to green cars, as its example shows that the time for making changes is running out. Whether through the government imposing or providing better rules of cyberspace or through information and awareness programmes aiming to educate the younger generation of India, it is the right time to care for and protect the mental health of the young generation in the never-ending phase of digitalisation.