Minors with Facebook, Gmail accounts: What the petition demands - Firstpost

Yesterday the Delhi High Court, issued a notice to the Central government asking how was it that minors, those under the age of 18 under Indian law, could open accounts on social networking sites like Facebook, and have email accounts on Gmail. The court was acting based on a petition filed by former BJP leader, KN Govindacharya, who had filed a plea seeking an order for recovery of taxes from the websites on their income from operations in India. The court has made both Facebook Inc and Google Inc as respondents and notices have been issued them as well. The order to the Central government was passed after Govindacharya's counsel Veerag Gupta argued that children below 18 are getting into an agreement with the social networking sites. This is against the Indian Majority Act, the Indian Contract Act and also the Information and Technology Act. So what exactly are the issues being raised in the petition? • According to the petition, the government needs to ensure safety of the data of 50 million Indian users, which was transferred "to the US and is being used for commercial gains in violation of the right to privacy." Associated Press • The petitioner wants the court to issue a writ of Mandamus — where the court directs the concerned authorities to undertake an action— which will ensure strict verification of all existing users and future members of social networking websites, with instructions not to enter agreements with children below 18 years. • The petition also asks that people who have committed sexual offences in the past should be stopped from joining social networking websites. • The PIL also hopes that Centre will be asked to  ensure that government officers "do not use social networking websites through government computers" as they may pose a threat to sensitive data and national computer network. The petition about underage children joining Facebook and Gmail may have some merit. Facebook's own terms of service state clearly that anyone under the age of 13 cannot use the service and also that users will not provide any false personal information on Facebook.  Google also acknowledges that access to some of its services comes with age requirements although it does not specify any age restriction. Lying about your age on Facebook could be seen as a criminal offense and parents too could face consequences if their children are logging onto such sites while they are underage. Speaking to the Hindu, top cyber law expert Pavan Duggal said, "Creating a false electronic record is an offence under the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code. Under Section 465, the offence would attract punishment up to two years' imprisonment…" via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEWzFfJpiYOxPJJlx-W9DVtOrQZlQ&url=http://www.firstpost.com/tech/minors-with-facebook-gmail-accounts-what-the-petition-demands-731295.html

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