DPDP Act 2023, read with the DPDP Rules 2025, treats anyone under 18 as a child and gives special protection to their personal data. The law recognises that children use phones, social media and games long before they understand digital consequences, so the burden is pushed onto platforms and parents rather than the child.
Key shifts for children’s digital rights:
- Verifiable parental consent before processing a child’s data (with narrow exceptions for core services).
- Stronger rights to know, access, correct and delete child data, including from social media and apps.
- Bans on tracking, behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising to children, especially on social media and gaming platforms.
For an overview of how DPDP fits within the broader tech‑law landscape, you can also see dpdp act 2025 rights on your site before or after this article.
What Counts as a “Child” and “Digital Rights” in India?
Under DPDP, a child is anyone under 18 years of age, which is stricter than many global regimes that use 13–16 as the threshold. This means even 17‑year‑olds on Instagram, gaming apps or edtech platforms are treated as children for data protection purposes.
Core elements of Children’s Digital Rights
Children’s digital rights after DPDP cluster around four pillars:
- Privacy – data collection and sharing must be minimised and justified.
- Safety – features that increase bullying, grooming or exploitation must be controlled.
- Participation – children should still be able to learn, play and communicate online.
- Agency (via parents/guardians) – parents can exercise rights to access, correct, erase and withdraw consent.
Your earlier article on dpdp act 2025 rights can be linked where you first explain these four pillars, as it already breaks down access, correction and erasure rights for all users.
Verifiable Parental Consent: New Rules for Platforms
How parental consent is supposed to work
The DPDP Rules 2025 make verifiable parental consent mandatory before most processing of children’s data. Platforms must verify both the child’s age and that the person giving consent is actually a parent or lawful guardian, using methods such as OTP‑based verification, ID checks or secure portals.
The rules stress that:
- Consent must be easy to give and equally easy to withdraw.
- Parents should be able to see what data is collected and how it is used.
- Consent cannot be bundled or hidden inside long, confusing terms.
Exceptions: Education, Health and Safety
DPDP recognises that some services must function even without full parental workflows. So limited exceptions exist where data processing is allowed without prior parental consent, for example:
- Essential education platforms used by schools.
- Tele‑health or emergency care services.
- Real‑time safety features like emergency tracking or abuse reporting.
For detailed background on timelines and penalty structures, parents and schools can cross‑refer your main dpdp act 2025 rights article when explaining these exceptions.
Social Media: Children’s Rights vs Algorithmic Design
What Social Media Platforms Must Change
Under DPDP and its Rules, social media platforms processing children’s data must:
- Stop behavioural profiling and personalised advertising based on a child’s activity.
- Build robust complaint‑handling mechanisms for parental reports and data requests.
- Implement age‑assurance systems with high accuracy to detect under‑18 users.
User‑generated content platforms are also expected to adapt moderation and reporting workflows so parents can easily report false profiles, bullying, impersonation and image‑based abuse.
This aligns closely with your guide on cyberbullying laws in india, which already explains how parents can act when social media abuse crosses into criminal behaviour.
Practical Rights Parents Can Exercise on Social Platforms
For popular platforms (Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat etc.), DPDP‑aligned rights include:
- Asking what specific data they have about the child (watch history, interests, friends).
- Demanding correction of wrong age or contact details.
- Requesting deletion of the child’s data and closure of accounts when no longer needed.
- Withdrawing consent for any further data use beyond core service.
Parents can combine these data rights with how to report cybercrime in india when content crosses into threats, sexual material or serious harassment.
As an external reference, the UNICEF General Comment on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment provides a global human‑rights lens on exactly these kinds of obligations.
Gaming Platforms: Data, Addiction and In‑App Purchases
Why Gaming Needs Extra Scrutiny
Mobile and online games collect large amounts of behavioural data and often nudge children into extended play and micro‑transactions. DPDP rules view this as a high‑risk area because:
- Games can profile children’s behaviour for targeted offers.
- Chat and voice features expose minors to harassment or grooming.
- Loot‑box mechanics and dark patterns exploit immature decision‑making.
DPDP Obligations for Gaming Companies
Under DPDP Rules 2025, gaming companies handling children’s data must:
- Implement age gating and age‑assurance systems to identify minors.
- Avoid behavioural tracking and targeted advertising for child accounts.
- Offer clear parental dashboards to manage permissions and view data.
- Enable simple withdrawal of consent and easy deletion of child accounts.
For cases where gaming fraud overlaps with KYC misuse or UPI payments in a child’s name, your article on legal action against online fraud and upi fraud in india can be referenced to explain recovery and criminal complaint options.
As an external comparative view, you can point readers to Europe’s approach under the EU’s GDPR “age‑appropriate design” guidance, which is often cited in Indian policy commentary on gaming and child data.
School Apps and EdTech Platforms: Children’s Data in Education
EdTech and School ERP systems Under DPDP
School ERPs, online learning apps and exam portals now fall squarely under DPDP when they process children’s personal data. This includes:
- Student profiles, attendance, marks and learning analytics.
- Parent contact information and fee‑payment details.
- Behavioural data on how children use educational content.
DPDP expects such platforms to practise data minimisation, robust security and strict role‑based access. They must also have mechanisms for parents to see what data is stored, correct inaccuracies and request deletion where appropriate.
Obligations of Schools and Colleges as Data Fiduciaries
Schools that directly operate digital systems are often data fiduciaries themselves. Their responsibilities include:
- Choosing compliant edtech vendors and insisting on DPDP‑aligned contracts.
- Keeping parents informed about what platforms are used and why.
- Offering clear contact points for data‑related grievances.
- Acting quickly when parents request access, correction or erasure.
Your article on how to report cybercrime in india can be linked when school platforms are misused for hacking, doxxing or mass bullying, and your cyberbullying laws in india piece is a natural follow‑on when misuse escalates to legal harassment.
Key Rights for Children and Parents Under DPDP
Access, Correction and Erasure of Children’s Data
DPDP gives parents and older children (acting through parents/guardians) clear rights to:
- Know what personal data is being processed and for what purpose.
- Access that data in a usable format.
- Correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
- Erase data when it is no longer necessary or consent is withdrawn.
These core rights are already explained in your dpdp act 2025 rights article and can be cross‑linked where you first list them for children.
Right to Withdraw Consent and Opt‑Out of Tracking
Parents can withdraw consent at any time, and DPDP requires that withdrawal be as easy as giving consent in the first place. This is crucial for:
- Turning off recommendation and tracking features on child accounts.
- Deleting profiles on platforms no longer used.
- Preventing further sharing with advertisers or data brokers.
Where platforms ignore or delay such requests, parents can escalate using the practical complaint path you describe in dpdp act 2025 rights and then, if there is harm or serious misuse, consider combining privacy claims with consumer and civil actions discussed in filing a civil suit in india.
What Platforms Cannot Do with Children’s Data
Bans on tracking, profiling and targeted ads
For children, DPDP and Rules strongly discourage or ban:
- Tracking across apps or websites to build behavioural profiles.
- Targeted advertising based on a child’s engagement or vulnerabilities.
- Nudging children into sharing more data than necessary.
This is especially relevant for “free” apps that monetise engagement and in‑app behaviour; parents should be sceptical when an app aimed at children has very aggressive ad‑based models.
Dark patterns and addictive design
Though DPDP does not yet spell out every dark pattern, regulators and commentators increasingly highlight problematic designs like manipulative timers, endless scroll and disguised ads. Over time, these may be tested under DPDP’s fairness and necessity principles.
If these design choices lead to fraud or coercion, parents can draw on your legal action against online fraud guide and, in extreme cases of harassment or threats, combine with cyberbullying laws in india and how to report cybercrime in india for enforcement.
How to Enforce Children’s Digital Rights in Practice
Step‑by‑Step Action Plan for Parents
A practical enforcement sequence for parents might look like:
- Check platform policies – see if there is a dedicated children’s privacy or DPDP section.
- Use in‑app tools – request data, correction or deletion using account settings.
- Write to the Grievance Officer/Data Protection Officer – clearly invoke DPDP and your child’s status as a minor.
- Escalate to regulators and complaint bodies – once the Data Protection Board’s online portal is fully operational (as explained in dpdp act 2025 rights), parents can escalate non‑compliance, and in parallel use consumer and cybercrime routes where harm is serious.
- Consider legal help for complex or high‑impact cases – especially where there is identity theft, financial loss, or severe harassment.
When to Combine DPDP with Cybercrime and Other Laws
DPDP is about data protection, but real‑world incidents often involve overlapping harms:
- Social media bullying + circulation of morphed images.
- Gaming chats turning into threats or extortion.
- School apps being misused to leak personal details.
In these cases, parents can:
- Use cyberbullying laws in india to understand criminal options.
- Follow how to report cybercrime in india for portal and police steps.
- Use legal action against online fraud if fraud or extortion is involved.
- Combine with filing a civil suit in india for injunctions and damages where reputation or serious harm is at stake.
External resources like the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s official text of the DPDP Act and Rules, and explanatory pieces such as the child‑data‑focused analysis on Law.asia, can be referenced for those wanting to read the primary instruments and specialised commentary.
When to Consult a Lawyer and Which Service Fits
Situations where legal help is important
Parents may handle basic platform requests themselves, but professional legal help becomes important when:
- A platform refuses to delete or correct obviously harmful child data.
- There is a serious data breach with resulting bullying, fraud or impersonation.
- Edtech or school apps leak grades, medical or disability information.
- Children face sustained harassment or threats tied to misuse of their data.
In such situations, families may need a mix of privacy, cyber and civil strategies rather than just platform support tickets.
Relevant LegalCrusader Services to Highlight
Within this article, it is natural to link two services:
- A general legal advice consultation page, for parents who want to understand whether their problem is best handled via DPDP, cybercrime law, consumer law or civil suit.
- A corporate/cyber/compliance‑oriented service page (for example, corporate lawyer in delhi if you frame it as helping schools, edtech and startups implement child‑data‑compliant policies).
For criminal‑law‑heavy situations where child data misuse leads to threats, extortion or deepfake abuse, you can also mention criminal lawyer in delhi as a discrete, single anchor in the enforcement section.
Conclusion: Building a Child‑Centric Digital India with LegalCrusader
Children’s digital rights in India have entered a new phase with the DPDP Act and DPDP Rules 2025, particularly for social media, gaming and school apps. The law now expects platforms to treat child data as a special category, to minimise tracking and targeting, and to give parents meaningful control through access, correction, erasure and consent withdrawal options.
At the same time, enforcement gaps, low awareness and fast‑changing technologies mean families still need clear guidance to navigate real‑life conflicts between algorithms, school systems and their children’s wellbeing. LegalCrusader sits at this intersection of tech and child safety helping parents, students, schools and startups understand their obligations and rights, design safer digital journeys, and use Indian law proactively to protect children’s privacy, dignity and future in an increasingly connected world
