The Islamabad High Court has issued notices to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority in a case on children's safety on social media. The court's chief justice issued the notices after an applicant asked that both institutions be made parties to the proceedings. The petition seeks a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework to protect children online, including an under-16 social media ban, effective age verification, and parental supervision of children's online activity.
Those notices do not impose a restriction on accounts. They call on the two institutions to answer a request that they be joined to the case. A notice asks the recipient to respond in the proceedings; it is not a final order. The Islamabad High Court is the high court for the federal capital.
What the petition asks
The applicant wants effective age verification and measures to ensure parental supervision of children's online activity. The court has been asked to examine whether NADRA could establish a secure and effective age-verification system. NADRA, the National Database and Registration Authority, is the institution named for that question.
The applicant also wants the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority made a party. The stated purpose is to help address platform accountability, personal data protection, and an effective complaint redressal mechanism, together with the request for an under-16 social media ban.
Risks named in the application
The petition says children face cyberbullying, harassment, sexual exploitation, exposure to inappropriate content, and digital addiction. It calls on the state to protect children's best interests, mental health, privacy, and dignity, and to put stronger safeguards in place for minors who use social media platforms.
These points are the case put by the applicant. The chief justice has issued notices, and the court has not, at this stage, decided whether those safeguards should be ordered.
What happens next
An under-16 social media ban remains a request, not a rule families must follow. Parents do not, on the basis of these notices, have to close a child's account, and no method of age checking or parental supervision has been settled.
If the court accepts the plea, the everyday questions would be how a child's age is confirmed, how parents are expected to supervise online activity, and how platforms deal with complaints and personal data. Any age check would depend on what the court decides after examining whether NADRA could establish a secure and effective system. Until there is a decision, this step does not change how children in Pakistan use social media.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Islamabad High Court ne NADRA aur social media authority ko notice bheje hain. Darkhwast mein 16 saal se kam umar ke bachon ke accounts par pabandi, age check, aur walidain ki nigrani maangi gayi hai. Abhi koi ban lagu nahi hua. Aam gharon ke liye bachon ka social media abhi waisa hi hai.
