Pakistan court seeks replies from regulators in case on under-16s' social media ban

Pakistan's telecoms regulator has told the Islamabad High Court that no law in the country allows a ban on social media use by children, as a petition calling for children under 16 to be kept off the platforms continues.

The reply from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was submitted on Thursday in a case brought by petitioner Waqas Nasir, who is asking the court to restrict social media use by under-16s and to order legislation protecting children online. The court has also issued notices to two more bodies, asking whether they should be added as parties to the case.

Regulator says it lacks the power

In its written response, the PTA said it "could not go beyond its legal mandate to fix an age verification mechanism" and told the court that "no law of the land exists to ban the use of social media by children". It argued that any ban would need a new legal and policy framework, and asked the court to dismiss the parts of the petition that seek relief beyond what the law currently allows it to do.

The regulator pointed to work being carried out by other bodies. It said action against cybercrimes and immodest material falls to the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency, and that a Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority is being established under the PECA Amendment Act.

Petitioners want age verification

At an earlier hearing, lawyers for the petitioner, Muhammad Jalal Haider and Yahya Farid Khawaja, argued for an effective age verification system for social media accounts. The petitioners have also asked the court to order legislation protecting children from cyber bullying and online harassment, and to require a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for children's online safety. The court has already issued notices to the ministries of Information Technology, Information, Interior and Law, as well as the PTA and the broadcasting regulator PEMRA, and summoned their replies.

At the most recent hearing, Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar heard a miscellaneous application asking that two further bodies be made respondents: the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), which holds citizens' identity records, and the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority. The court sought replies from both and adjourned the hearing.

Regulator describes its own record

The PTA set out what it said it had already done. It reported that it has reviewed more than 1,789,000 links and web addresses and blocked over 1,577,000 of them for online violations. It has run awareness campaigns with UNICEF, TikTok, Meta and the mobile industry body GSMA, and operates a toll-free helpline for children's online exploitation.

The regulator also told the court that global platforms have not registered in Pakistan and are not bound by local law. It said it had asked the companies to appoint local compliance and grievance officers but had received no positive response, and that encryption now makes it impossible to block individual items of content. According to the PTA, a safety feature for teenage accounts has been launched on Instagram for subscribers in Pakistan.

The wider picture

The case is being watched as one of a number of social media court cases around the world in which regulators, legislators and litigants are testing how far platforms can be held responsible for harm to children. In the United States, a Los Angeles jury found in March 2026 that Meta, over Instagram, and Google, over YouTube, had been negligent in how their platforms were designed and operated and in failing to warn, in the case of a young woman identified in court as K.G.M. Further trials in the coordinated US addiction cases are scheduled for later this month and into 2027.

In Pakistan, the immediate next step lies with the court. The Islamabad High Court has adjourned the petition after seeking the replies from NADRA and the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority, with the PTA's submission now among the responses before the Chief Justice.