Concerned over the vulnerability of children being exploited through social networking sites, the Delhi high court on Wednesday sought suggestions from Facebook and Google on safety measures to be put in place for online usage of such sites by minors in India.
A bench of justices B.D. Ahmed and Vibhu Bakhru voiced concern about children using Facebook and other social networking sites and then being lured knowingly and unknowing into illegal and unsafe acts by adults.
“What we are worried about is children who have been part of the social network and some adults misleading them and taking advantage. We are also concern about the use of their data by the adults for their advantage,” the high court bench said.
“The counsel for Facebook Inc and Google Inc will file suggestions regarding the online media sites used by the minors in India and how their rights were protected within four weeks,” it said.
The court’s direction came after counsel for Facebook Inc submitted that the site operated under the US law Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as per which a child below 13 years of age is not allowed to open an account.
To this, the bench said in the US the rights of the children are protected by COPPA but what about the children in India. “What will the Facebook do if a child is exploited online? Like American children, how do you protect the rights of Indian children,” the court asked and fixed July 16 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
The bench’s direction came while hearing the plea of former BJP ideologue K.N. Govindacharya seeking recovery of taxes from the websites on their income from operations in India.
The court also expressed unhappiness over the Centre’s argument that one has to enter into an agreement with the site while opening an account which is not a contract but agreement to the terms and conditions.
The government counsel also submitted that there is no mechanism to verify the identity and age of a child from online account. Earlier, the court had asked the government to respond to a plea questioning how children below the age of 18 years are allowed to open account on social networking sites including Facebook, even though Indian laws do not permit it.