Social Media Algorithms that a public interest litigation says are designed to keep children hooked are now before the Supreme Court, which has asked the Centre and Meta to respond. The plea, whose allegations are yet to be answered, seeks audits of these systems, effective age verification and safeguards for young users.
New Delhi: Notice has gone out from the Supreme Court to the Union government and Meta on a public interest litigation that seeks a regulatory framework to protect children from what it calls algorithmic addiction and predatory harms on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The Court passed the order on Wednesday, November 4 [Sreerupa Chowdhury v. Union of India & Ors.].
The petition filed by Sreerupa Chowdhury was heard by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, which issued notice. The Court has not ruled on the merits of the plea.
What the plea asks for
The petitioner wants the government and regulatory authorities directed to audit the platforms’ algorithmic systems, enforce effective age-verification mechanisms, and bring in safeguards against compulsive use and against children’s exposure to harmful content.
Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra appeared for the petitioner.
Features the petition calls compulsive
According to the petition, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp deliberately deploy compulsive-use features, described as “dark patterns”, among them infinite scrolling, auto-playing video reels, push notifications and variable reward systems that it says are designed to trigger dopamine loops.
The plea says these designs cause severe addiction in children, along with cognitive impairment, sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression and self-harm ideation among adolescents.
It also points to what the petitioner describes as deficient age-verification systems that let children under 13 use the platforms unchecked, and alleges that the platforms have become a permissive space for online grooming and child sexual abuse material, in breach of the Information Technology Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. These are allegations in the petition and are yet to be answered by the respondents.
Safety by design
The petition contends that Meta has agreed to safety-by-design safeguards in Western jurisdictions under regulatory pressure but has not deployed similar protections in India.
Another plea on the same subject
Last month, the Supreme Court issued notice on a petition by Indore-based Emerald Heights International School and its Director Siddharth Singh, which seeks directions to the Centre and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to frame a regulatory framework restricting children’s access to social media to shield them from cyberbullying, sexual exploitation and compulsive digital dependency.
What the notice signals
Notice is only a first step, but it brings a platform itself before the Court on how its products are designed, not just on what users post. The plea targets product features such as feeds, reels and notifications, and asks for regulatory audits of the systems that decide what children see.
The case will have to be weighed against the Court’s own recognition that internet access is a right of every individual, children included, under Article 21, and its reluctance to endorse blanket age bans. With two petitions now pending on children and social media, the Court may be asked to chart a middle path built on safeguards and age verification rather than exclusion.
Case Title: Sreerupa Chowdhury v. Union of India & Ors.
Bench: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, Supreme Court of India
Date of Hearing: November 4, 2026
Appearances: Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra with Advocates Shambo Nandy, Daksh Sharma, Shivani Luthra, Manas Agrawal, Adarsh Kothari, Pranjal Pandey, Rishabh Dahiya, Varnika Bhardwaj, Parth Tanwar, Devansh Tiwari and Prachi Sharma for the petitioner
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