NEW DELHI, Nov 13: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had nearly completed work on new guidelines aimed at making children’s use of social media and online gaming platforms safer. It aims to issue the final guidelines in the first half of 2027.
The commission held its final stakeholder meeting with social media and online gaming companies on Thursday. Representatives of the companies presented their existing child safety measures, awareness programmes and proposed future steps.
An NCPCR official said the draft guidelines would be released in December for public feedback. The commission will consider comments and suggestions before issuing the final guidelines in the first six months of 2027.
A total of 16 companies, including Meta, Google, Snapchat, ShareChat, Reddit and Roblox, attended the meeting.
The proposed guidelines will cover age-appropriate digital experiences, protection of children’s personal data, identification of online sexual exploitation and abusive content, regulation of addictive digital mechanisms and digital well-being.
They will also address online harassment, circulation of inappropriate content, online grooming of children and privacy breaches. An official said some legal digital activities could still harm children, including mechanisms that encourage repeated viewing of reels and algorithms that continuously show harmful content.
The consultation process began with social media and technology companies on May 22. The commission later held separate discussions with companies, consulted civil society organisations on July 24, and met online gaming firms on October 19. It also held discussions with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Department of Telecommunications and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre.
