The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has told the Islamabad High Court that there is currently no law prohibiting children under the age of 16 from using social media in Pakistan, saying it cannot establish an age-verification system beyond its existing legal powers.
The PTA submitted its detailed response to the court on Thursday in a case concerning restrictions on social media use by children under 16. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Interior and National Commission on the Rights of Child also submitted their responses.
The telecom regulator said a new legal and policy framework would be required to protect children from online risks. It added that its authority to block unlawful online content was limited and interim in nature.
According to the PTA, a Social Media Protection Authority is being established under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) Amendment 2025 and will handle complaints concerning unlawful content and impersonation.
The PTA said it had reviewed more than 1.789 million unlawful online links and URLs and blocked over 1.577 million, recording an overall blocking rate of 88.20%.
It said 88.68% of links reviewed on TikTok, 87.34% on YouTube and 78.57% on Facebook were blocked, while action was taken against 79.52% of links on Instagram and 48.42% on X, formerly Twitter.
The authority said more than 1.066 million websites and links containing obscene content had been blocked, along with over 203,000 links involving content against Islam and more than 46,000 links deemed harmful to national security.
The PTA also cited technical and legal limitations, saying major social media platforms were not registered in Pakistan and were not subject to local laws. It said HTTPS encryption makes it difficult to block individual content, often requiring an entire website to be blocked.
The authority said it was working with UNICEF, TikTok, Meta and GSMA on child-safety awareness campaigns. It also said a toll-free helpline, 1121, was operational for reporting online abuse and exploitation of children.
The PTA requested the court to dismiss the petition to the extent that it sought relief beyond the authority’s legal jurisdiction.
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