ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේත් වයස 16 ට අඩු අයට සමාජ මාධ්‍ය තහනම් කිරීමට යෝජනාවක්

President's Counsel Faizer Mustapha (MP) today submitted the “Social Media Minimum Age Bill” to the Secretary-General of Parliament. The primary objective of this bill is to control children's access to social media platforms and protect them from harmful online content.

This new bill empowers the subject minister (Minister of Child Affairs) to issue orders to prevent children under 16 years of age from accessing social media platforms. Furthermore, it includes provisions to limit the daily time a child can use social media or to specify particular times for its use.

It is proposed to appoint an authorized commissioner under the National Child Protection Authority to oversee the implementation of this law. It also states that in case of any discrepancy between the Sinhala and Tamil versions of the bill, the content of the Sinhala version shall prevail. Currently, this law is in effect in several countries including Britain and Australia.