Page 50 - EW February 2026

Cover Story

Social media platforms' mild child-safety guardrails

lobal social media companies claim to safeguard child and sleep mode.
Gsafety by removing predatory content that targets mi- • Parents/guardians can monitor recent contacts, set
nors, and running parental awareness initiatives focused on screen-time limits, and restrict app usage during specific
digital hygiene and online wellbeing. However, in the Indian hours. Users under 16 require parental consent to modify
context, many of these child-safety guardrails are weak safety settings.
and ineffective and children continue to access harmful or YouTube has prescribed stringent policies to protect
abusive content with relative ease. minors from content that could harm their emotional or
Meta has introduced Teen Accounts with default safety physical wellbeing, while allowing limited exceptions for
features on Instagram, with plans to extend these safe- educational, documentary, scientific, artistic and public-
guards to Facebook and Messenger. Under this framework interest material.
subscribers below 16-18 years of age are automatically • The platform prohibits pornographic content, graphic vio-
placed under stricter privacy and safety settings that include: lence, and hate speech, removing violations and enforcing a
• Limited profiles, restricted messaging, limited interaction three-strike rule for repeat offenders.
with unknown users, and reduced exposure to sensitive • Enforcement is supported by machine-learning systems
content besides offensive language filters, usage reminders and human reviewers.

for an urgent, immediate ban by the Simply stated, popular social media
Central government on social media platforms are deliberately designed
platforms permitting minors from to encourage addiction. Their wide-
accessing these apps, she simultane- spread penetration into the lives of
ously advocates awareness campaigns children and adolescents comes at a
by the Centre and states to educate hidden cost in terms of time lost for
parents and students about the nega- academic learning and healthy devel-
tive effects of social media addiction. opment. Indeed, it’s commonplace in
“ BIG TECH HAS BEEN incred- dergrad students and jobless youth
urban India to witness groups of un-
endlessly scrolling on their mobile
ibly irresponsible while en-
abling the spread of social
media apps worldwide. The phones watching hastily produced,
low-quality reels.
outcome is an entire generation of “From a medical perspective, the
sleep-deprived, anxious, distracted adolescent brain is in a state of flux.
and depressed children and youth Lahariya: significant consequences Executive control centres are still un-
in all countries in varying degrees. der construction, even as reward and
Although in our upper middle class versities who co-promoted the CISCE emotional systems are highly sensitive
school, parents tend to regulate and Cambridge (UK) affiliated co-ed to stimuli and novelty. Social media
their children’s social media usage, IA in 2003. In the EW India School platforms are uniquely designed to ex-
in government schools where par- Rankings 2025-26, IA is ranked In- ploit these reward pathways, reinforc-
ents are less aware and both working, dia’s #1 co-ed day school. ing patterns of intermittent positive
the problem has assumed alarming The rising alarm of responsible feedback through likes, comments,
proportions. Millions of children be- educators about the impact of addic- and shares. For children whose pre-
coming addicted to social media, con- tive social media platforms and apps is frontal cortex is still maturing, the
stantly scrolling and suffering atten- warranted because they are inimical to consequences can be significant not
tion disorder. The Central government the learning needs of minors. The core just mentally but socially as well,”
needs to heavily penalise social media architecture of social media platforms wrote Dr. Chandrakant Lahariya,
companies that use algorithms that with algorithmic feeds that track user a health policy expert and specialist
promote addiction. Moreover, gov- behaviour, provide engagement met- in parenting and child development in
ernment and schools should launch rics (that quantify digital viewers), en- Times of India (February 1).
awareness campaigns targeting par- courage continuous scrolling (jump- More disturbingly, there is growing
ents and children about the harmful ing from one reel to the next), and addiction within youth and middle-
outcomes of constant scrolling and social validation loops consisting of aged citizens to pornography beamed
social media addiction,” says Fazal, an ‘likes’, ‘comments’ and ‘notifications’ from the US where it is a major in-
alumna of Bangalore and Boston uni- is designed for attention retention. dustry, and other dissolute Western

50 EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2026