India to bar under-18 social media accounts via contract law

India's government told the Supreme Court it will amend the IT Intermediary Rules to make it a statutory obligation for social media platforms to block users under 18 from creating accounts. The basis is Section 11 of the 1872 Contract Act: minors' agreements are void ab initio, so their terms of service have no legal standing.

• India's age-18 threshold exceeds US (13), EU (16) and Australia (16)
• Rules cover platforms with over 5 million Indian users
• Non-compliance removes safe harbor under Section 79 of the IT Act
• Age checks may rely on Aadhaar selective e-KYC