NY, EU Move to Restrict AI and Social Media for Children Under 15: Why Indian Schools Should Take Note
A major global shift is emerging around children’s access to artificial intelligence and social media, with New York City tightening AI use in schools and the European Union preparing a sweeping proposal that would restrict children under 15 from accessing social media, video-sharing platforms, AI chatbots and online games. The developments signal a growing international concern that children should not be introduced to powerful digital technologies without age-appropriate safeguards.
The European Commission is preparing an EU Kids Act that would introduce age-based access to digital services. Under the proposal, children below 15 would face major restrictions, while those aged 13 and 14 could receive limited access to social media and video platforms only through parental controls. Children aged 15 and above would be able to create their own accounts. The proposal would also require companies to strengthen age verification, parental controls and reporting mechanisms for harmful content.
The EU proposal is significant because it puts AI chatbots in the same child-safety discussion as social media. Services such as ChatGPT could come under the proposed framework, reflecting concerns that conversational AI can influence children in ways that are different from conventional websites or educational software. The proposal is not yet law and will still have to go through negotiations with EU member states and the European Parliament.
New York City has taken a different but equally notable step inside its public-school system. For the 2026-27 academic year, the city’s schools have introduced a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI from 2-K through Grade 8. Companion chatbots are prohibited across all grades, while high-school students will have access only to limited, approved AI programmes and supervised career-related uses.
The policy affects nearly 600,000 public-school students and is accompanied by new limits on individual screen use. Students in Grades 3 to 5 are recommended to have no more than 30 minutes of daily one-to-one screen time, while the recommendation rises to 45 minutes for Grades 6 to 8. Students in the youngest grades will have no routine one-to-one screen time.
New York is not arguing that children should never learn AI. Instead, its policy makes an important distinction between learning about AI and allowing AI to perform cognitive work for young students. High-school students will receive AI-literacy instruction covering how AI works, data privacy, bias and appropriate use, while selected AI tools can be tested under controlled conditions.
That distinction could be particularly relevant for India. Indian schools are moving rapidly in the opposite direction in terms of AI education. The Ministry of Education said in August that NCERT, in collaboration with CBSE, has introduced a Computational Thinking and Artificial Intelligence curriculum for Classes III to VIII from the 2026-27 academic year, while AI and related subjects have also been developed for higher classes.
India’s approach, therefore, does not need to copy New York by simply banning AI. But the New York experience raises a more important question for Indian schools: what should children be allowed to do with AI at each age?
For younger students, unrestricted access to generative AI could create a serious educational problem. A child who routinely asks a chatbot to write an essay, solve a mathematical problem or generate an answer may complete the assignment but miss the learning process itself. New York’s education authorities specifically cite the risk that generative AI can make it easier for students to bypass the thinking they are supposed to develop themselves.
There is also the question of emotional dependence. AI companions can respond instantly, imitate conversational relationships and present themselves as highly attentive interlocutors. New York State lawmakers have already moved separately to restrict certain unsafe AI-companion features for minors, including systems that present themselves as real or fictional humans or encourage harmful behaviour.
India also has a particularly complex privacy challenge. The country’s Digital Personal Data Protection framework provides specific protections for children’s data, while the government has said that its broader technology rules and 2026 amendments are intended to address harmful AI-generated content, impersonation, deepfakes and risks to children.
For Indian schools, this means the immediate lesson from New York should not necessarily be a blanket AI ban. A more practical model could be age-based access: very young children receive AI awareness without direct chatbot access; middle-school students use AI only for tightly supervised educational activities; and older students learn how to use AI while being required to verify information and demonstrate their own reasoning.
Schools could also establish clear rules on student data. Children should not be encouraged to upload personal information, photographs, school records, family details or sensitive assignments into consumer AI systems without a clear privacy framework. Schools should know what data an educational AI product collects, where it is stored and whether it can be used to train commercial models.
Teacher involvement is equally important. AI should reduce repetitive administrative work without quietly replacing the teacher-student relationship. New York’s policy allows teachers to use approved AI for planning and operational work while keeping student-facing use much more tightly controlled.
India is already investing in AI literacy, including teacher training and school-level AI education. The challenge now is to ensure that AI literacy does not become synonymous with simply learning how to operate a chatbot. Students also need to learn how to question AI, identify hallucinations and bias, protect personal data and recognise when using AI actually weakens their own learning.
The larger message from New York and Europe is therefore not that AI has no place in children’s education. It is that age, purpose, supervision and safety matter. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in Indian classrooms, schools may need to decide not only which technology to adopt, but also when a child is developmentally ready to use it.
For India, the most useful lesson may be simple: teach children about AI before allowing AI to teach children. The goal should be to ensure that technology strengthens curiosity, reasoning and creativity rather than becoming a shortcut around them.
