Karnataka Budget 2026: CM Siddaramaiah Proposes Social Media Ban For Children Under 16 To Tackle Rising Mobile Use
· Free Press Journal
Karnataka: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah while presenting the State Budget at the Vidhana Soudha has announced that Social media will be banned for children under the age of 16 to prevent the adverse effects of increasing mobile usage.
The Karnataka CM said that "with the objective of preventing adverse effects of increasing mobile usage on children, usage of social media will be banned for children under the age of 16,"
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"AI and Tech Park under IISC will set up a robotics and AI campus called Bangalore Robotics and AI Innovation Zone in collaboration with ISRO and Keonics," he added further.
The Karnatak CM had earlier discussed this issue with university vice chancellors, seeking their views on whether mobile phones should be restricted for children under 16. He further said that the students' learning capacities, behavioral patterns, and mental health were being negatively impacted by their excessive use of digital devices.
Mobile Bidi Pustaka Hidi (drop mobile, take up books) Initiative
The Karnataka government is also taking initiatives like Mobile Bidi Pustaka Hidi (drop mobile, take up books). This initiative seeks to promote reading habits among students in schools. The primary goal is to instill a love of reading in students and mold them into responsible citizens with "active, thoughtful, and high-thinking abilities."
Bengaluru, Karnataka: On Karnataka's plan to ban social media for children below 16, Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad says, "See, it is a societal issue. The whole country or the whole world should debate. We all have young children at home, in our families. We are all concerned about… pic.twitter.com/Q18ez3BqPv
— IANS (@ians_india) March 6, 2026
After the budget while speaking to the IANS, Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad says young kids are getting exposed to unnecessay ossues which they should not have been exposed at that age, "See, it is a societal issue. The whole country or the whole world should debate. We all have young children at home, in our families. We are all concerned about how much they are getting exposed to unnecessary issues, which, at that age, they should not have been exposed to. How they are being exploited emotionally, how they are being disturbed mentally, the small children with unfiltered information, with unfiltered issues going on in social media. So, there has to be some restriction."