MediaNama invites you to apply for our invite-only roundtable discussion on ‘Age Verification and Restricting Social Media for Children’ in Bengaluru on May 15. 

Date: 15 May, 2026. (Friday)
Time: 1 PM to 5 PM
Format: Roundtable Discussion
Venue: Spring Hall, Hotel Royal Orchid, Domlur, Bengaluru. [Google Maps Link]

Register here. 

Note: This is an invite-only discussion, so please do apply. 

Why is this discussion important?

Multiple Indian states are now drafting or proposing social media bans for children, following the global trends, especially Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act, which took effect in December 2025. They are: 

• Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah proposed an under-16 ban during his 2026-27 budget speech. 
• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu also proposed plans for an under-13 ban.
• Goa is also examining similar measures. 
• The central government, meanwhile, is reportedly preparing a three-tier approach with different age brackets (8-12, 12-16, 16-18), each with varying restrictions.

Sessions and topics:

1. Why are we considering this? Understanding the concerns leading to restricting access to the internet and devices for children and challenges:
   1. Examining evidence on the impact of digital platforms on children: what are we optimising for?
   2. Access to knowledge and learning.
   3. International regulatory approaches and their implications, including lessons from Australia, Indonesia, and the Age Appropriate Design Code.
   4. What India can learn from international experiences with age verification.
   5. Who decides what content or platforms are “harmful”? What should the evidence threshold be?
   6. How do such measures affect children who lack alternative access to information and education?
   7. What do we still not know about harms and benefits?
2. How will this actually work? Technical Implementation, Models, and Challenges
   1. Technical and practical issues with age verification mechanisms
   2. Different age verification models, their implications, and implementation challenges: where should verification happen and who should conduct it?
   3. False positives (blocking legitimate users) and false negatives (children bypassing restrictions)
   4. Data collection and alignment of proposed plans with the DPDP Act
   5. Understanding implementation for households with shared devices
   6. Feasibility of implementing bans across state boundaries.
   7. Implications of the implementation of an age verification infrastructure
   8. What will kids do? Understanding workarounds: VPNs, borrowed credentials, AI facial verification and the move to encrypted/unencrypted platforms.
3. Balancing protection and agency, and policy design: Examining alternatives to bans and age verification and understanding policy design:
   1. Mechanisms already in place and potential improvements
   2. Age verification versus parental control vs bans
   3. Schools as mechanisms for diffusion of digital literacy
   4. Who enforces? How? What penalties? Accountability metrics. Case studies of unenforced regulations 
   5. Optimising for agency for Children, and examining the Centre’s proposed graded approach (8-12, 12-16, 16-18), in terms of implementation and platform design
   6. Jurisdiction and implementation issues in Centre vs State regulations
   7. How will success be measured? How will regulation adapt?
   8. What will fail at the enforcement level?

This is an invite-only discussion so please do apply.

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• Registration does not guarantee attendance. In case you fit our mandate for the curated audience, we’ll send you a confirmation by May 14, 2026.
• Your contact information will never be shared with anyone outside of MediaNama.

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