Social media platforms cautioned the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) against introducing a separate age-assurance obligation in its proposed online child safety guidelines, arguing that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) framework already covers it, people aware of the development said.
In a meeting held by NCPCR on Thursday, the platforms said age-assurance and parental-consent mechanisms under the data protection regime should be harmonised with any NCPCR guidelines rather than being governed by parallel obligations. The meeting to discuss proposed guidelines for technology companies on protecting children online was attended by NCPCR chairperson Valeti Premchand and member secretary Sanjeev Sharma, along with Manoj Meena, director, National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, and Sathyanarayanan Subramanian, additional director, cyberlaw, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, people cited above said. Representatives of Google, Meta, Snap, Reddit, Roblox, Garena Games and ShareChat presented their points of alignment with the NCPCR’s Child Safety Implementation Matrix.
The matrix includes principles relating to safety by design, age assurance, default protections for minors, child data protection, detection of child sexual abuse material and grooming, harmful content, digital wellbeing, reporting and redressal, parental empowerment, and audits and impact assessments, the sources said.
