Aadhaar Card verification: The Supreme Court has observed that the current practice of giving only short disclaimers before streaming programs containing violent, explicit, or otherwise sensitive material may not be enough to protect underage viewers. Now, it shows a brief disclaimer and starts the program, not allowing those viewers to think whether they should or should not watch it.
The bench observed that even by the time someone wants to take back from watching the content, it has already started, thereby rendering the warning of practically noneffectiveness. The court stated that the OTT platforms need to put in more effort where security is concerned in making such content not available to minors.
The Supreme Court had proposed during hearings on the case that OTT platforms might then think of containment measures that would impact anyone who tries to watch sensitive content, for example, involving one more layer, such as an age-verification process before content goes up. One of the ideas that emerged from the bench was that it could be Aadhaar authentication to confirm the age of the viewer.
According to the Court, the warning should first appear for, say, two seconds and then be followed by an age-verification step—like Aadhaar-based confirmation—before the program begins. This would ensure that only adults gain access to content rated for mature audiences.
However, the Court took notice that this system would also need to have very stringent data-privacy safeguards in order to avoid misuse of private information.
At this time, the suggestion comes at a time when digital entertainment shoots up all over India, with millions of younger ones consuming entertainment online and for most such kinds of applications installing just PIN-based parental controls but more often not used. Besides, the Court pointed out that there are many occasions when these measures are flouted or simply not put in place.
Thus, the Supreme Court’s statement can go a great deal in making stricter, much more responsible content regulation on OTT platforms. The matter, however, is expected to be revisited together with the court exploring how a balance can be achieved between creative freedom, user autonomy, and child safety in the digital world.
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