The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to respond on the laws in India regarding the protection of children on the social media like Facebook and Orkut. The court questioned as to how children below 18 years of age are allowed to open an account on social networking sites — including Facebook and Google’s Orkut.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Vibhu Bakhru asked the Central Government, “What law do we have in India for opening an account on social mediaIJ What is the permissible age for opening an accountIJ” The bench has also asked the social networking sites to give details on the mechanism of addressing users’ grievances such as existing fake accounts, objectionable content and other issues and stressed on the need to verify the age of the user.
“If I don’t have a Facebook account, but someone is impersonating me on Facebook, how can I complain against this practice and how will these sites address this problem,” the bench asked the social networking sites.The petition filed by the former BJP ideologue KN Govindacharya contended that the social networking sites are responsible for the objectionable content being posted and misused by users as there is no provision to address the complaints.
“41 percent of the content on Facebook is objectionable. Who is responsible for thatIJ” said Veerag Gupta, Counsel for the petitioner.
Facebook and Google Inc also told the bench that it is very difficult to verify the age of the user. “Independent verification by Facebook is extremely tough. We have guidelines on the website for users less than 18 years. In case of any exploitation, a request can be made by a police authority to the respective offices of the sites and the issue can be sorted,” said Parag Tripathi, Counsel for Facebook.