Government to spell out ‘risk-based’ plan for social media age-gating

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

government will come out with a definitive “risk-based” framework with multiple options for social media and internet intermediaries to ensure age-gating and subsequent parental consent management, multiple people aware of the development told ET.

This framework will have to be adopted by social media companies such as Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram and Google’s YouTube along with all edtech and health platforms among others, they said.

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Age-verification of children – that is, users below the age of 18 – could be done through documents stored either in DigiLocker, an Aadhaar-based process, a digital token, or at the app store level, depending on the risk of a child’s data being possibly misused and the likely harm, a government official said.

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“There cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach here,” the official said. “Social media companies will need to adhere to stricter age-gating as the possibility of a stranger getting in touch with children or vice-versa is much greater here, compared to say an education app or a website.”

For example, educational, news, accessory and fashion apps and websites, which have users below the age of 18, could be asked to verify the age of their users and ensure appropriate parental consent through a more relaxed approach of cross-checking the age through documents stored in Digi Locker, another official said.

“Documents such as school leaving certificates, board exam mark