🥀In a long-awaited draft of Digital Personal Data Protection(DPDP) Rules, the Centre on Friday made parental consent and identification mandatory for creating social media accounts for those who are below the age of 18.
𒁏Following the announcement, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked for feedback from the general public. People can raise questions and submit objections or suggestions via the government’s citizen engagement platform, MyGov.in. The feedback will be considered after February 18, 2025.
🌱The new draft rules have set specific guidelines for e-commerce entities, online gaming intermediaries, and social media intermediaries,
About the draft rules
Children's data protection
🧸The new draft rules focus on stricter measures in a bid to ensure protection of the personal data of children and individuals with disabilities under lawful guardianship.
♔The rules have directed the data fiduciaries who are entrusted with handling people's personal data to ensure receiving a verifiable consent of a parent or guardian ahead of processing any personal data belonging to minors.
🧸The consent verification process should include government-issued IDs or digital identity tokens, such as those linked to Digital Lockers. Educational institutions and child welfare organisations, however, may be exempt from some provisions of the rules.
Enhancing consumer rights
⛄Besides emphasizing on protecting children’s data, the draft also focused on designing rules to enhance consumer rights, allowing users to demand the deletion of their data and seek transparency from companies about why their data is being collected.
෴Any report of data breach will amount to a penalty of up to rupees 250 crore, the Centre said. The draft also gives the consumers the provision to challenge data collection practices and demand clear explanations for data usage.
Data Protection Board to be formed
𒁃To ensure strict monitoring on compliance with these rules, the government also planned to establish a Data Protection Board, which will function as a fully digital regulatory body.
🅠According to MeitY, the board will be bestowed with the responsibilities to conduct remote hearings, investigate breaches, enforce penalties, and register consent managers. Consent managers will be required to register with the Board and maintain a minimum net worth of Rs 12 crore.
𒁃These comprehensive measures aim to ensure that data fiduciaries adopt robust technical and organisational safeguards, particularly concerning vulnerable groups like children.
