Apex court issues landmark judgement on blanket internet ban

The Supreme Court of India has issued a judgment that curbs the blanket ban on internet access for children. The Apex Court said that access to internet is a fundamental right even for children. In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that the right to access and use the internet is a fundamental right of every individual under Article 21 and Article 19, Subsection 1 and Subsection A of the Indian Constitution. The court in its order said that a blanket restriction on children accessing the internet is not the solution. The judges, they went on to add that children, irrespective of their age, enjoy the same rights and to deny the same altogether would be absurd. They added that the safety of the children and their freedom are not at odds with each other. The Supreme Court made its ruling by pointing out two judgments made on previous cases in 2025 and 2020 the apex court made the ruling in response to an ngo's petition that sought its intervention to prevent the availability of child sexual exploitation and abuse material on social media platforms the supreme court said that under these abuse standards the wrongdoer is the person who creates circulates sells or seeks out such material and the intermediary which fails to detect and remove the same. It added that keeping the children away from internet on account of such failures would be to mistake the victim for the problem. It added that keeping children away from social media platforms was no guarantee that they would not be exposed to such abuses and similar material. The judges said that such material will continue to circulate without proper safeguards and earnest efforts by all stakeholders. However, the court said that the judgment does not mean that there should be no age-based restrictions. They also acknowledged that some form of safeguards are necessary for the safety of children online. The apex court also gave suggestions by making accounts private by default, restrictions on messages coming from unknown contacts and moderation of content available to children. The judges further added that government could restrict the access of children to specific categories like adult content websites.