India's Supreme Court says children have a right to the internet, and rejects blanket age bans
India's Supreme Court has ruled that the right to access the internet extends to children, and that blanket restrictions on kids going online are disproportionate. The judges said no country has shown that such bans make children safer, and warned that age limits mean checking every user's age, which brings its own surveillance and privacy risks. They also noted that kids who are breaking the rules may hide online problems from parents for fear of punishment. The court didn't rule out sensible safeguards: it pointed to a child mode, private-by-default accounts for pre-teens, limits on contact from unknown adults and parental consent. It also told the government to build a national database to help find and remove child abuse material across platforms.
What this means for us
It's a useful reminder that the debate isn't just ban or no ban. Whatever the law says, safer settings and a child who feels able to tell us when something goes wrong do a lot of the work.