Page 48 - EW February 2026

Cover Story

platforms aren’t available, pre-teens, stuff such as the mating habits of ama-
teenagers and young adults (age 18- zonian spiders. Today, young people
24) known to use multiple platforms are lost in a dark rabbit hole where
are the largest social media users. they suffer fear and anxiety that makes
Admittedly there are positive as- their minds brittle, random, anxious,
pects of social media. Numerous plat- non-linear and weak,” Kochhar said
forms enable learning and provide in an interview with EducationWorld
high-quality education when usage last June (https://educationworld.in/
is structured, age-appropriate and our-minds-have-been-colonised-by-
supervised. For instance, reels with social-media-megacorps).
short-form educational videos, story- As mentioned in passim earlier,
telling, explainers, language learning several social activists and child rights
clips and creative tutorials in engaging NGOs are campaigning for stricter
formats can complement traditional control of American megacorps and
classroom learning. Several educa- content developers beaming distract-
tional platforms encourage learning ing content to children and youth in
participation, support creative expres- Kochhar: colonised minds danger India. Last year, in B.L Jain vs. Union
sion and confidence-building. Navi- of India and Zep Foundation vs.
gating digital interfaces also helps in devoid of context or continuity, irre- Union of India, the Supreme Court de-
understanding the increasingly im- spective of whether they bring their clined to admit writ petitions praying
portant skills of online etiquette and phone with them to school or not. for a statutory ban and regulation of
recognising safe vs. unsafe online be- Neither parents, teachers or youth social media that made online pornog-
haviour. are sufficiently aware of this danger. raphy and other content easily acces-
We must realise that the minds of our
sible to, on the ground that the issue
H mainstream social media children and youth are being hijacked, falls within the “policy domain” and as
OWEVER,
POPULAR,
such requires government rather than
colonised by social media apps that
is not designed for the
switching ‘off’ and ‘on’ every three
learning needs of the huge are training their minds for neural judicial intervention.
Meanwhile, government has not
global population of children and seconds. Two hundred years ago, the been totally inactive on this issue.
youth. The core architecture of social East India Company expropriated the The Digital Personal Data Protection
media platforms with its algorithmic land and property of Indians. Current- Act (DPDP Act) 2023 which obliges
feeds (analysing user behaviour), en- ly, American new tech majors are ex- social media platforms to obtain veri-
gagement metrics (quantifying digital propriating the minds of our youth to fiable parental consent for children
interactions), infinite scrolling (jumps collect massive personal data to trans- and youth under-18 to register social
from one reel to the next), and social form them into passive consumers of media accounts has been practised
validation loops consisting of ‘likes’, the advertising campaigns of Ameri- more in the breach than observance.
‘comments’ and ‘notifications’ is op- can consumer products multination- Moreover, full enforcement, includ-
timized for attention and user reten- als,” warns Yogesh Kochhar, the ing penalties for non-compliance, is
tion. Simply put, it means the plat- Dharamshala-based former Director scheduled only after May 2027, pro-
forms are deliberately designed to of Microsoft India and founder-trust- viding an 18-month period of transi-
encourage continuous usage. Thus, ee of the YOL Happiness Foundation. tion for tech companies.
the widespread penetration of social As an antidote, the foundation has This time window during which
media into the lives of children and designed and developed its YOL app millions of children are likely to be-
adolescents extracts a huge hidden approved by AICTE as a program that come addicted to social media pro-
cost that severely hinders academic provides a ‘mind map’ for students grams is not acceptable to a growing
learning and damages socio-emotion- from class VIII onwards. It enables number of knowledgeable educators
al development. social media users to assess the mind who favour an immediate Australia-
This “invasion” of the minds — share lost to casual screen viewing style ban on children below 18 years
mindshare — of children and youth by — video reels and online trivia — on accessing non-academic social me-
Western tech megabucks corporations a daily basis through colour-coded dia apps and platforms. “Absence of
has alarmed serious monitors of the signalling. “By making users aware of conversation on the child destructive
education sector. “Indian youth spend time spent on random and ambiguous impact of proliferating social media
an average six hours per day on social viewing, this app enables people to re- is dispiriting. The DPDP Act seems
media watching video reels featuring wire their brains and focus on more to believe that an immediate ban on
trivia that is random and meaningless, important things rather than random children below age 18 accessing so-

48 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2026