Minister Nara Lokesh convenes multi-stakeholder meeting with platform representatives, directs officials to study Australia, Singapore and Denmark models; warns of strict action against hate speech targeting women

AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday initiated the process of drafting legislation to ban children below the age of 13 from accessing social media platforms, with Minister for Education, IT and Electronics Nara Lokesh directing officials to prepare a framework of rules and a draft law at the earliest.

A group of ministers convened a meeting at Undavalli with representatives of major social media platforms and senior officials to deliberate on policy options for safeguarding children's digital wellbeing. Mr. Lokesh, who chaired the session, said the government was determined to shield minors from the harmful effects of unregulated social media exposure while ensuring that creativity among children was not stifled in the process.

Age-appropriate content and verification

Mr. Lokesh directed officials to frame rules that would make age-appropriate content available to children between 13 and 16 years, ensuring they were not exposed to sensitive or harmful material. He asked officials to study best practices from countries that had moved ahead on child digital safety legislation, specifically citing Australia, Singapore, and Denmark as models worth examining.

On age verification, the Minister directed officials to explore the use of age tokens linked to DigiLocker — the government's digital document repository — as a technically robust means of verifying users' ages on platforms. He said the government would submit a report to the Central government on aspects falling within the Union's legislative domain, following a period of public consultation.

Mr. Lokesh also directed that steps be taken immediately to appoint an adjudicating authority under Section 46 of the Information Technology Act, which deals with disputes arising from online harm.

Awareness and hate speech

The Minister announced a State-wide awareness campaign on the adverse effects of social media on children. He said teachers would brief students on No Bag Days, and that the twice-yearly Mega Parent-Teacher Meetings would also be used to sensitise both parents and students. Awareness sessions for women's self-help groups on online safety were also planned, he said.

"Those who post derogatory or hate-filled remarks against women on social media will face strict action. We will not allow digital spaces to become unsafe for women."

— Nara Lokesh, Minister for Education, IT and Electronics, Andhra Pradesh

Platforms pledge cooperation

Representatives of Meta, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), ShareChat, and Josh were among those present at the meeting. They briefed the ministerial group on existing policies for handling sensitive content and the grievance redressal mechanisms currently in place on their respective platforms. All platform representatives expressed their willingness to extend full cooperation to the State government's initiative.

The meeting was also attended by Ministers Vangalapudi Anitha, Nadendla Manohar, and Satya Kumar Yadav, along with senior officials including GAD Principal Secretary Shyamala Rao, IG (Eagle and Cyber Crime in-charge) AK Ravi Krishna, and SP (Cyber Crime) Adiraj Singh Rana.