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10 August 2026

Social media restriction Bill for children

The Shield Bill is a significant piece of proposed legislation addressing child safety, digital governance, and intermediary liability, making it a highly relevant topic for GS2 and GS3 mains examinations.

2 min read Day 3 of 5 2 questions 2 prelims

Notes

  • The Safeguarding Healthy Internet Environments for Little Digital-Natives (Shield) Bill, 2025, proposes regulations for social media and online gaming access for minors.
  • The Bill mandates verified parental consent for children under 13 to create accounts on social media or gaming platforms.
  • Intermediaries are required to provide parental control dashboards for monitoring activity, managing privacy, and restricting screen time.
  • Content removal obligations: Harmful content must be removed within 36 hours; content involving child sexual material must be removed within 24 hours.
  • Platforms must include a 'Report Child Harm' button accessible to all users.
  • Non-compliance penalties: Up to ₹10 crore for intermediaries; potential suspension or blocking under Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000.
  • Personal liability: Designated officers failing to observe due diligence face up to three years imprisonment and/or a ₹10 lakh fine.
  • Mandatory annual child safety and risk assessment reports must be submitted to the government.
  • Prohibition on using user verification data for behavioural profiling.

Part of a longer story

This is day 3 of 5 in Global legislative efforts to restrict social media access for minors, which has been running since 10 July 2026. Reading it whole is usually worth more than reading today alone — the exam asks how something developed.

Questions

  1. Discuss the necessity of legislative frameworks to regulate social media access for minors in the context of algorithmic addiction and content safety. How can such measures balance child protection with digital privacy rights? 150 words
    Attempt this — 150 words in 8 min
    0 / 150 words 8:00
  2. The rapid proliferation of digital platforms necessitates a robust regulatory mechanism to safeguard children from online harms. Critically examine the role of intermediaries in ensuring child safety and the challenges in implementing age-verification and content-moderation mandates within the existing legal framework of the Information Technology Act. 250 words
    Attempt this — 250 words in 11 min
    0 / 250 words 11:00

Prelims

  1. Under the proposed Shield Bill, 2025, what is the mandatory timeframe for an intermediary to remove content involving child sexual material after it has been reported?

  2. Which section of the Information Technology Act, 2000, is cited for the potential blocking of intermediaries that fail to comply with safety regulations?

Syllabus

Topics

Sources

250words.in · https://250words.in/daily/2026-08-10/social-media-restriction-bill-for-children