The Indian government is planning to “incorporate parental controls in data usage” by July 31, 2024, as per a meeting held on November 23, 2023, for access and Internet Service providers (ISP), members of the Department of School Education and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). A review meeting on this topic will take place on March 18, 2024, at 2:45 PM in Delhi, as per a government circular.
During the November meeting chaired by the Deputy Director General (Data Services) of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the government talked about the ‘Safenet’ application developed by MeitY. The app that was then reported to be under testing provides parental control for PCs/tablets/mobile phones for parents.
“It was opined that the impact of schools on parents will be more vis a vis the Internet Service Providers. Accordingly, the Department of School Education was requested to issue necessary instructions to all the schools through the respective boards for awareness on Parental Control Filter (PCF) solutions using display boards, Parent teacher meetings, WhatsApp groups of parents and teachers or any other mechanism schools use to interact with parents,” read the minutes of the meeting.
ISP representative pushes for default uploading of such controls
The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), an ISP group that seeks to promote internet and Broadband for all, suggested to MeitY that parental control applications should be uploaded by default in relevant devices by the manufacturer.
The government also asked licensees (ISPs and Telecom Service Providers) to campaign for parental control by “(a) broadcasting text SMS (b) playing ring tones to their subscribers (c) displaying Fliers/Flexes at Point of sales (POSs) (d) Sending the emails to their subscribers at least quarterly.”
In 2019, the Madras High Court said the government and ISPs had an important role to play in providing a parental window and raising awareness about parental control software. The court had summoned the DoT secretary and the ISPAI secretary for failing to respond to the court’s notice on a plea to regulate children’s Internet use.
Experts not convinced with the efficacy of parental controls
Reacting to the news, cybersecurity expert Anand Venkatnarayanan called the move a “full-on device surveillance.”
Parental DNS controls are nothing new. I run my own DNS controls (my network, my rules) for ad filters, malware and adult sites.
And full fledged stackerware w/ mandatory installation on all devices and that too decided by sarkari babus ain't a future I want for my kid.
— V. Anand | வெ. ஆனந்த் (@iam_anandv) March 16, 2024
Venkatnarayanan is not alone in his scepticism for this move. Last year alone, MediaNama spoke with various representatives of child rights-protecting groups who argued that there are many concerns related to parental approval as well. In March 2023, Pallavi Bedi, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) spoke about how parental approval for access can infringe on a child’s privacy as the child may be uncomfortable seeking consent from parents on certain topics like sexuality, etc.
Also Read:
- Is Age-Verification The Answer To Protecting Children From Online Harms? #NAMA
- Who Should Be Asked To Give Consent On Behalf Of A Child? Speakers Debate During #PrivacyNama2023
- TikTok Under Investigation By UK Communications Regulator For Providing Inaccurate Information On Parental Control Measures
- Parental Controls Won’t Cut It, OTT Platforms Need To Fight Regulation: Our Take
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