A petition filed in the Islamabad High Court seeks legislation preventing the population under 16 from using social media accounts in Pakistan, arguing that minors face significantly higher risks from sexual exploitation, cyberbullying and harmful online content as social media use continues to expand across the country. Lawyer Jalal Haider, representing petitioner Waqas Nasir along with lawyers Yahya Farid Khwaja and Muhammad Zeshan Ali, stated the petition has drawn on Australia’s under-16 social media restrictions as a model for the proposed Pakistani framework.
The proposal calls for PTA and NADRA to jointly develop an age verification system that would restrict social media use for people under 16 across the country, and further proposes penalties for parents who allow children to bypass the restrictions, while also asking social media platforms to comply with Pakistani laws on enforcement. The petition invokes the legal principle of parens patriae, under which the state can act as a guardian to protect minors, with Haider stating that children are particularly vulnerable because they may be unable to seek help independently when facing online abuse or exploitation. According to DataReportal figures cited in the petition, Pakistan has nearly 117 million internet users and 79.9 million social media user identities, underscoring the scale of exposure among the country’s large youth population.
The petition arrives as a growing number of countries have moved to restrict minors’ social media access over the past year. Australia became the first country to enforce such a ban, requiring platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to remove users under 16 starting December 2025, with non compliant companies facing fines running into tens of millions of dollars. Indonesia followed in March 2026, deactivating under-16 accounts on high risk platforms, while Malaysia’s Online Safety Act took effect around the same period, restricting minors from opening new social media accounts. Brazil introduced a law requiring platforms to link under-16 accounts to a parent or guardian, and Turkey passed legislation in April barring under-15s from social media, expected to take effect later this year. Separately, Denmark, Norway, Canada, France and several other countries have advanced similar age restriction proposals or legislation through 2025 and 2026, with minimum ages generally set between 14 and 16.
The current IHC petition follows an earlier Social Media (Age Restricted Users) Bill introduced in Pakistan’s Senate in July 2025 by Senators Syed Masroor Ahsan and Sarmad Ali, which similarly proposed PTA oversight and financial penalties for non compliant platforms, alongside potential jail time for individuals found helping minors bypass restrictions. The petition asks the federal government to introduce nationwide legislation that would place enforcement responsibilities on parents, technology platforms and relevant government agencies, positioning Pakistan among the expanding group of countries moving to formalize minimum age requirements for social media access.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
