BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday announced that the state government will impose a ban on social media use for children below 16 years of age.
Making the statement during his budget speech, Siddaramaiah said the move is aimed at preventing harm to children’s mental health and addressing the adverse impact of mobile phone use on education.
The announcement came as the Karnataka government presented its budget in the Assembly. Siddaramaiah said this was his 17th budget.
In the same address, the Chief Minister said the government would bring in stricter rules to curb substance abuse and would take steps to fill vacancies in key departments.
He also stated that Karnataka’s gross state domestic product growth for 2025-26 is projected at 8.1%, and alleged that the Centre was being unfair to the state by not adhering to the federal spirit of the Constitution. To address recruitment delays due to pending court cases, he said a five-year age relaxation has been provided, and that the process to fill 56,432 posts across departments has been initiated this year.
