NEW DELHI, Feb 17, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - India is discussing age-based restrictions with social media companies, following Australia's move to ban under-16s from popular platforms, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Tuesday.

"This is something which has now been accepted by many countries that age-based regulation has to be there," Vaishnaw told reporters at the AI Impact Summit.

"Right now we are in a conversation regarding deepfakes, regarding age-based restrictions with the various social media platforms and... what is the right way to go about this," he said.

Australia in December enforced a ban that required TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and a host of other top social media services to remove accounts held by young teens, or face heavy fines.

Vaishnaw also signalled tougher oversight of manipulated content online.

"We need much stronger regulation on deepfakes," he said.

"I think it's a problem which is growing day by day. And certainly there is a need for protecting our children, protecting our society from these harms."

India already last week tightened rules regulating artificial intelligence, requiring social media platforms to clearly label AI content and comply with takedown requests by authorities within three hours.