Amaravati, March 6: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday initiated a discussion in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly regarding the ideal age cutoff for restricting social media usage among minors, saying that social media will be banned for children aged below 13 years of age.

According to a source, the Chief Minister stated that "we have received a suggestion to ban social media for children aged below 13 years. Definitely, we will ensure there will be no access to children aged below 13 years of age in the coming 90 days. A discussion is going on whether it should be 13 years or 16 years. If everyone agrees on it, we will decide."

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said that the state government is considering a new population management policy that includes financial incentives to encourage families to have more children, announcing a proposed Rs 25,000 assistance at the time of delivery for parents who have a second or third child.

Speaking in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, CM Naidu presented the state's proposed population management policy. He said that currently about 58 per cent of families have only one child, around 2.17 lakh families have two children, and nearly 62 lakh families have three or more children. He also noted that around three lakh families have only one child instead of two, while another three lakh families have more than two children.

To address this, the government is proposing financial incentives for childbirth. Under the plan, parents who have a parents who have a second child or more will receive Rs 25,000 at the time of delivery.

Similarly, in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday announced that social media will be banned for children under the age of 16, while presenting the 2026-27 State Budget in the Vidhana Soudha.

During his Budget speech, Siddaramaiah said the move aims to prevent the adverse effects of increasing mobile usage among children. (ANI)

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