The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has asked tech giants including Google, Meta, X and others to come up with methods for verifying the age of children on their platforms. According to a report by Money Control, the ministry told them that the government will not prescribe any method to the industry for it.

Instead, these platforms have been advised by the government to explore their own, tech-enabled methods to comply with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, the report states.

IT Ministry organises meeting with tech industry representatives
A meeting was organised at the IT ministry on July 18 morning to discuss the same. The meeting was chaired by MeitY secretary S Krishnan. From the industry side, the meeting was attended by representatives of Meta, Google, Sharechat and Snap, sources said.

According to the report, the meeting came in the context of the ministry being unable to zero in on a single, full-proof method for verifying children’s age. Previously, the ministry explored using Aadhaar or Digilocker for the same. However, the methods were found to be unfeasible, the report says quoting sources familiar with the matter.

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What is DPDP Act?
The DPDP Act, 2023 defines a child as someone below the age of 18. The act provides for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognises both the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process such personal data for lawful purposes.

Section 9 of the Act mandates social media platforms to obtain verifiable consent of the parent before processing any personal data of a child. The law also puts a bar on tracking children’s behavioural monitoring or targeted advertising at children.

During the meeting, the IT ministry quoted section 8)(4) of the DPDP Act that requires platforms to implement “appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure effective observance of the provisions of this Act and the rules.”