India’s Karnataka Signals Intent To Ban Social Media For Under-16s
Matilda
India’s Karnataka Signals Intent To Ban Social Media For Under-16s
When a government announces a social media ban for children, the instinct is to reach for a familiar script: politicians grandstanding, tech companies pushing back, researchers calling for nuance. But what happened in Bengaluru on Friday felt different — and not just because of what was said, but where it was said, and by whom. Karnataka, the Indian state that houses the headquarters of some of the planet's most influential technology businesses, told its own constituents that children under 16 should be kept off social media entirely. That is a striking thing to say from the middle of Silicon Valley East. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah slipped the announcement into a budget speech, framing it as child protection rather than tech regulation. The language was simple. The intent was clear. What was conspicuously absent was everything else — no mechanism, no legislation, no timeline, and crucially, no prior conversation with the industry that drives the state's economy. Two sources i…
