BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has requested the government to contemplate establishing an age limit for students to access social media. Justices G Narender, Vijaya Kumar A Patil and the Division Bench directed the examination of the feasibility of such legislation, similar to the regulation of intoxicants usage. The court made this observation during its consideration of a petition filed by X (Twitter) challenging the Ministry of Electronics and IT's order to block specific accounts and remove tweets and hashtags.

Prohibiting access to social media could have a positive impact, especially on students who are deeply involved in it. There ought to be a framework akin to excise laws. Can 17 and 18-year-olds truly discern what is in the best interest of the nation? The court also noted that even if content harmful to the mind is discovered on the internet, it should be promptly removed.

The Division Bench was reviewing a petition filed against the single bench's decision, which had declined to halt the central government's directive to remove 1,474 accounts, 175 tweets, 256 web pages and a hashtag that had been posted on X between February 2, 2021 and February 28, 2022.