“We spoke to several stakeholders before coming to this decision. While parents want the age to be kept at 18, children and other stakeholders want it lowered. But right now, the age cut-off will be 18. We may lower it to say 16 a year after the (DPDP) Bill is in place,” the official added.
Companies will be required to obtain explicit parental consent before processing any data belonging to this user group.
“So, if these companies can assure us that they have put in place a proper framework which protects the data of children, prevents any kind of harm from reaching them and does not provide for any sort of targeted advertising, there is no reason why it cannot be lowered (to 16),” an official said.
The decision by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology comes amid a sustained pushback from internet and social media intermediaries who have argued that keeping the age at 18 is not in line with global standards.
Companies such as Meta Inc, Google, Snap, and others, which have users below the age of 18, will have to seek explicit parental consent for processing any data.
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Sources within the IT ministry mentioned any resolution to decrease the age of consent to 16 a 12 months after the DPDP Bill is enacted would be the authorities’s approach of reassuring firms within the ed-tech and different children-content associated area. These firms, sources mentioned, have urged the federal government to decrease the age since a lot of their academic and informative content material is focused at kids.
Apart from retaining the present definition, the draft DPDP Bill proposes that firms that deal in such information teams won’t course of information in any approach that harms kids.
Further, it proposes that information fiduciaries “shall not undertake tracking or behavioural monitoring of children or targeted advertising directed at children”.
The obligations prescribed within the draft Bill are a departure from comparable norms world wide.
For instance, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) recognise various ranges of maturity of younger adults and youngsters whereas prescribing the age of consent and the foundations for information processing.
While the US, below the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPA), prohibits processing information of kids beneath the age of 13, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has assorted norms for consent between the ages of 13 and 16, relying on the age group adopted by every member state inside the Union.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com