The Islamabad High Court has pushed the debate over social media regulation for children in Pakistan into a new phase. On Monday, the court asked six government bodies to explain, in writing, what they are doing to protect children under 16 from the risks of unsupervised social media use.
Summary
Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar heard a petition asking the federal government to build a legal framework for children’s social media use. The court issued notices to five ministries plus the PTA and PEMRA and told them to file their replies. The case will return to court at the next hearing.
Background
The petition was filed by a citizen, Waqas Nasir, through advocates Muhammad Jalal Haider and Yahya Farid Khawaja. It asks the court to direct the state to introduce an effective age-verification system for social media accounts and pass legislation to shield minors from cyberbullying, harassment and harmful content.
This is not an isolated push. In July, Punjab Assembly member Sarah Ahmad, who also chairs the province’s Child Protection and Welfare Bureau, moved a resolution asking the federal government to bar children under 16 from holding social media accounts without parental consent. That resolution cited rising cases of cyberbullying, online exploitation and digital addiction among minors, and it referred to countries such as Australia and France as examples already restricting underage access.
The Islamabad case has moved through several hearings since it was first filed. An earlier bench had already asked PTA and PEMRA to submit a report on measures to regulate minors’ access to social media, with a March deadline. A hearing scheduled for late August was adjourned once because the chief justice was unavailable, before resuming this week with formal notices issued to all six respondents.
Details
At Monday’s hearing, the petitioners’ lawyers argued that protecting children online is both a constitutional and a legal duty of the state. They told the court that other countries are already tying children’s social media use to age limits and safety checks, and that Pakistan has no comparable law on its books.
The court’s notices went to the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, and the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority. Each is now required to respond formally, explaining current rules, gaps, and any plans in the pipeline.
Beyond age verification, the petition seeks a broader regulatory mechanism dedicated to child protection online, along with directions to the federal government to draft and pass legislation specifically covering social media use by children under 16.
Quotes
During the exchange in court, the bench pressed PEMRA directly on whether any law already covers this ground. When asked if such legislation exists, PEMRA’s counsel told the court that no such law had been enacted yet, though the authority could look into interim steps within its existing mandate.
Sarah Ahmad, whose Punjab Assembly resolution predates this petition, has said plainly that she believes the harm outweighs the benefit for young users. She has pointed to anxiety, depression and disrupted schooling among children who spend long hours on social platforms as her reason for pushing the resolution.
Impact
If the court eventually orders the federal government to legislate, it would put Pakistan in the company of countries that have already restricted children’s access to social media platforms through law rather than platform policy alone. Age-verification requirements, parental consent rules and content-moderation duties for platforms operating in Pakistan could all follow from such a law.
For families, the more immediate effect right now is attention. The case has put a spotlight on how little formal protection currently exists for children who open social media accounts with no age check beyond a platform’s self-reported minimum age, which is easy to bypass.
For PTA and PEMRA, the court’s notices mean they now have to put their current practices on record. That alone could reveal how much — or how little — regulatory groundwork already exists for enforcing an age limit if one is eventually written into law.
Conclusion
The case is still at an early stage. The ministries, PTA and PEMRA now have to file their replies before the next hearing, and only then will the court weigh whether to issue further directions or ask the federal government to legislate outright. Given that a similar push is already underway in the Punjab Assembly, momentum for some form of social media regulation for children in Pakistan appears to be building on more than one front at once.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some important social media guidelines for children?
Guidelines that experts and child-safety bodies commonly recommend include setting a minimum age for opening accounts, requiring parental consent for younger teens, using privacy settings that limit who can contact or view a child’s profile, and having open conversations at home about what to share and what to avoid. Time limits on daily use, combined with parental monitoring tools built into devices, are also widely recommended. In Pakistan’s case, the petition before the Islamabad High Court is essentially asking the state to turn several of these informal guidelines into enforceable law, backed by age-verification checks on the platform side rather than leaving the responsibility entirely to parents.
What are the 5 C’s of social media?
The “5 C’s” is a framework often used in online safety discussions to summarise the main risks children face: Content (exposure to inappropriate or harmful material), Contact (interaction with strangers, including predators), Conduct (a child’s own behaviour, such as bullying others or oversharing), Commerce (exposure to scams, in-app purchases or exploitative advertising), and Contract (agreeing to terms of service or data-sharing arrangements they don’t understand). Pakistani lawmakers and petitioners have cited most of these categories directly in recent filings, particularly cyberbullying, online exploitation and exposure to harmful content.
What are 10 negative effects of social media on children?
Commonly cited effects include cyberbullying and harassment, exposure to inappropriate or violent content, anxiety and depression linked to heavy use, sleep disruption from late-night screen time, reduced attention span, exposure to online predators and grooming attempts, body-image issues driven by curated content, digital addiction, disrupted academic performance, and reduced face-to-face social interaction. Both the Punjab Assembly resolution and the Islamabad High Court petition cite several of these directly, including cyberbullying, exploitation, mental health strain and digital addiction, as the core reasons a legal framework is needed.
What did the Islamabad High Court actually order?
The court did not ban anything or set a deadline for new legislation. It issued notices to six government bodies — five ministries plus PTA and PEMRA — directing them to submit formal written replies before the next hearing, so that the court has a clear picture of what protections, if any, currently exist.
