In a world where digital presence begins almost from birth, children are increasingly active online—scrolling through content, interacting with influencers, and even creating their own digital personas. Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have become integral to the lives of young users, who often engage without fully understanding the implications of data collection, profiling, and surveillance.
For parents, educators, and policymakers, this raises urgent questions: What legal protections exist for children’s data on social media? Who is accountable when that data is misused? And how does India’s evolving data protection framework address the specific vulnerabilities of minors in the digital space?
This article explores the current legal landscape in India concerning children’s privacy on social media, the gaps that remain, and what legal professionals, companies, and guardians should know to ensure compliance and protection.
The Digital Childhood: A New Normal
Children as young as six or seven now have access to smartphones. By the time they are teenagers, many have established public profiles, post regularly, and engage with audiences across the world. According to industry data, over 40% of internet users in India are under the age of 20. Social media algorithms capitalize on this young audience by collecting granular behavioral data—from what they click to how long they watch a video.
This level of tracking raises serious concerns:
- Do children understand how their data is used?
- Are platforms transparent about data practices?
- Can children (and their parents) meaningfully consent to these practices?
The answers are complex and depend largely on how the law defines children’s rights and responsibilities in the digital age.
Current Legal Framework in India
1. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023
India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) is the first major legislation to offer a framework for the collection and processing of personal data, including that of children. Under this Act:
- A child is defined as any person under the age of 18.
- Processing of personal data of a child requires verifiable parental consent.
- Platforms must not track, profile, or target advertisements toward children, or engage them in harmful processing activities.
These are significant protections on paper. However, implementation remains a challenge. Questions around how platforms verify age, how consent is collected, and whether platforms comply in practice are still being resolved.
2. The Information Technology Act, 2000 and Intermediary Guidelines
While the IT Act provides a general regulatory framework for intermediaries, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 introduced additional obligations, particularly regarding grievance redressal and content moderation. However, these guidelines do not specifically address children’s privacy, nor do they require platforms to build child-specific protections into their systems.
3. Juvenile Justice and POCSO Acts
These laws focus primarily on child protection from physical and sexual abuse, but are increasingly relevant in digital contexts as well—particularly in cases involving online grooming, cyberbullying, and exposure to harmful content.
The Problem of Informed Consent
One of the most difficult aspects of ensuring privacy for children online is the concept of informed consent.
- Do children under 18 have the maturity to understand what they are agreeing to?
- Are platforms designing consent mechanisms that genuinely inform users, or simply rely on long, unreadable terms and conditions?
In reality, most platforms collect and process data by default. Opt-out mechanisms are rare. Even where platforms claim to prohibit users under 13 or 16, age verification is often superficial or absent altogether.
This creates an invisible data trail that may be used for targeted advertising, content manipulation, or worse—without the child’s knowledge or permission.
Age Verification and Platform Accountability
A key issue in children’s privacy is age verification. Without reliable methods, platforms cannot implement child-specific safeguards effectively. While some platforms use email verification or self-declared ages, these are easy to bypass.
In global markets, new methods are being explored:
- Facial recognition for age estimation (controversial and raises further privacy concerns)
- Document-based KYC for minors, controlled by parents
- Biometric-based solutions with limited use policies
India’s DPDP Act does not currently mandate a specific verification method. Until the Data Protection Board or sectoral regulators issue detailed rules, companies are left to interpret the requirements themselves—posing risks of non-compliance.
The Global Influence: COPPA and GDPR
India’s legislative journey in this area is influenced by global frameworks:
- COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) in the United States restricts data collection from children under 13 without parental consent and mandates specific disclosures and controls.
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the EU requires data controllers to obtain parental consent for children under 16 and implement child-specific data protection measures (with some member states lowering the age to 13).
These models show that children’s privacy cannot be treated as a subset of adult privacy law—it requires distinct rules, tailored consent protocols, and stricter enforcement.
Influencer Culture and ‘Sharenting’
Children today are not just consumers of digital content—they are also content creators and subjects of content. Parents routinely post photos, videos, and milestones of their children online. Known as “sharenting”, this practice raises ethical and legal questions about the child’s digital footprint and future autonomy.
In some cases, children become social media influencers themselves—earning income, building brands, and engaging with large audiences. This opens up a regulatory gray area involving:
- Child labor laws
- Monetary compensation and guardianship
- Contractual obligations and accountability
India does not yet have legal guidelines to address these specific scenarios, but such developments are inevitable.
Compliance Considerations for Businesses and Platforms
With the DPDP Act now in place, digital platforms, content providers, and advertisers targeting young audiences must take immediate steps to ensure compliance:
- Develop age-verification tools that go beyond superficial measures.
- Design privacy notices specifically for children and their guardians.
- Create parental consent workflows that are verifiable and traceable.
- Restrict tracking, profiling, and targeted advertising for users under 18.
- Audit data retention policies to minimize long-term risks.
Failure to comply could result in regulatory penalties, class action lawsuits, and reputational damage—especially in cross-border cases.
Looking Ahead: A Child-Centric Digital Future
As India operationalizes its data protection regime, stakeholders must recognize that children require extra layers of privacy, autonomy, and safety online. Enforcement will likely evolve through rules issued by the Data Protection Board, sectoral regulators (such as the Ministry of Electronics and IT), and the judiciary.
In the meantime, businesses operating in the digital space—whether social media companies, EdTech platforms, or app developers—must begin aligning their practices with child-focused privacy norms. Parents and guardians, too, must be educated about their rights and responsibilities in managing their children’s digital exposure.
Conclusion
Children’s privacy on social media is not merely a policy issue—it is a societal imperative. The internet is not going away, and neither is children’s engagement with it. What we need now is a robust legal ecosystem that understands and protects children’s rights in the digital world.
The DPDP Act has laid the groundwork. The next step is implementation with empathy, enforcement with precision, and innovation with integrity. For those building the future of digital India, child privacy must be a legal and moral priority—not an afterthought.