Facebook, Google asked by Delhi high court to keep a check on under age users

NEW DELHI: Delhi high court has asked Facebook and Google to submit suggestions on safety measures for online usage of such sites by minors in India within a period of four weeks.

"Worried" that children can be exploited through social networking sites, justice B D Ahmed and justice Vibhu Bakhru voiced their concern about Indian children entering into Facebook and other social networking sites and then being lured knowingly and unknowing into websites featuring adult content.

"What we are worried about is, children who have been part of the social network and some adults misleading them and taking advantage. We are also concerned about the use of their data by the adults for their advantage," it said.

The court?s direction came after Facebook submitted that the site operated under the US law Children?s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) according to which a child below 13 years of age is not allowed to open an account.

But the bench noted the absence of any law of this kind in India, even as it fixed 16 July as the next date of hearing.

The bench?s direction came while hearing the plea of former BJP ideologue K N Govindacharya seeking recovery of taxes from the websites on their income from operations in India.

The court also expressed unhappiness over the centre?s argument that one has to enter into an agreement with the site while opening an account which is not a contract but agreement to the terms and conditions.