Ram Gopal Varma says ‘banning social media for minors’ after Ghaziabad sisters’ suicide can have serious consequences: ‘Rationale sounds noble, but…’

In a long post on X (formerly Twitter) titled “Ban the Banners,” Varma asserted that prohibiting social media access to minors to “protect” them will, in turn, hinder their progress in the “hyper-competitive global information economy.” Pointing out that deeming social media as merely a frivolous distraction is “foolish,” he stated that it has become a “primary pipeline for real-time knowledge, skills, and networks that determine who gets ahead.” If India imposes a ban on minors’ access to social media, Varma argued, it would give their counterparts in other countries an upper hand, since they would still have direct access to platforms that teach coding, languages, entrepreneurship, science, and more.

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Mentioning that such a ban would deny Indian kids access to diverse perspectives, breaking news, and opportunities, Ram Gopal Varma pointed out that this will ultimately create “stark competitive inequality.” He noted, “The ‘protection’ rationale of banning sounds noble, but it ignores how the modern world actually works. Information speed is now a decisive factor in both personal and national success. Banning access will not eliminate risks… it simply outsources the information advantage to children elsewhere, widening the very inequalities governments claim to care about. Kids will still encounter the world eventually, but those denied early, guided exposure risk entering it less prepared, less adaptable, and less informed than the unrestricted.”

Read Ram Gopal Varma’s full post here:

BAN THE BANNERS

The core problem with banning social media to protect children under 16 from so called offensive content also will handicap them in today’s hyper competitive global information economy.
It’s foolish to think social media is just a frivolous distraction because…

— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) February 9, 2026

Maintaining that such bans won’t safeguard childhood in any meaningful way, the filmmaker stated that it would only result in a generation of “digital latecomers.” He added, “The ‘offensive content’ excuse, while real in isolated cases, pales against the systemic cost of information deprivation in a competitive world.”