Indian IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw answers questions from reporters at the AI Impact Summit on February 17, 2026.
Arjun Karpal | CNBC
NEW DELHI — India is in talks with social media companies about age-based restrictions, Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday.
“This is now accepted in many countries and there must be (restrictions) based on age,” Vaishnau said at a press conference at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
“We are currently in discussions with various social media platforms regarding deepfakes and age-based restrictions,” Vaishnow said, adding that the government was considering the “right way” to enact regulations. The minister did not name specific platforms or companies with which the Indian government is negotiating.
Any kind of crackdown in India, a country with a population of over 1.4 billion people, could have a major impact on Indian companies. meta to googlehas hundreds of millions of users in the country.
India has not yet decided on such a move, but the comments are among the first public comments by a senior government official. After Australia banned users under 16 from accessing major social media platforms in December, India is now joining a wave of governments debating whether to restrict children’s access to certain platforms.
Australia became the first country in the world to enact such rules, and other countries are now trying to follow suit. Denmark approved new rules late last year blocking access to social media platforms for under-15s, and Spain announced this month it would ban under-16s from using social media.
While Meta’s Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram platforms are estimated to be among the most popular apps in India, Google’s YouTube also has a large audience.
