New Delhi, Nov 4: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Central government and Meta on a petition seeking regulation of platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to protect children from algorithmic addiction and predatory online harms, Bar and Bench reported. A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice on the public interest litigation, Sreerupa Chowdhury v. Union of India and Others. The court has not ruled on the merits of the plea.

Source: Bar and Bench

The petition alleges — and these are allegations the respondents are yet to answer — that the platforms deliberately deploy compulsive-use mechanics described as 'dark patterns', including infinite scrolling, auto-playing video reels, push notifications and variable reward systems designed to trigger dopamine loops, Bar and Bench reported. It contends that these designs cause severe addiction in children, along with cognitive impairment, sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression and self-harm ideation among adolescents, and it raises concerns over deficient age-verification systems that, it says, allow children under 13 to access the platforms unchecked.

Source: Bar and Bench

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 children's exposure to harmful content, Bar and Bench and LawChakra reported. The petitioner, represented by Senior Advocate Geeta Luthra, submitted that Meta has agreed to safety-by-design safeguards in Western jurisdictions under regulatory pressure but has failed to deploy similar protections in India — an allegation Meta has not yet answered in this case.

This is the second such plea before the court in recent weeks. Last month, the Supreme Court issued notice on a similar 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, Bar and Bench reported.

Source: Bar and Bench

What happens next: the Centre and Meta will file their responses to the notice, and the matter will return to the bench for hearing; no directions have been issued against any platform at this stage. Sources: Bar and Bench (November 4, 2026) and LawChakra (November 4, 2026).