New Delhi, Oct. 18 -- The right to access and use the internet is a fundamental right of every individual, including children irrespective of their age, the Supreme Court has held, cautioning that blanket restrictions on children's internet access in the name of safety risk undermining their freedom, privacy and ability to seek help when they encounter online abuse. "The safety of our children and their freedom are not at odds with each other. Our children are entitled to both," a bench of justices JB Pardiwala and KV Chandran said in an order dated October 15, released now, holding that the right to access and use the internet flows from Article 21, read with the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. The court was examining measures to detect and remove child sexual exploitative and abuse material (CSEAM) from the internet when it turned to the growing international debate over restricting children's access to social media. While acknowledging the genuine concerns underlying such proposals, the bench consciously chose not to endorse a blanket prohibition, reasoning that protecting children cannot mean shutting them out of a medium that has become integral to education, information and social participation. The court's observations assume significance amid growing calls for governments to restrict children's access to social media, including through minimum-age requirements. The bench held that such prohibitions were not only of questionable efficacy but could also prove counterproductive by driving children towards less regulated and potentially more dangerous online spaces. "We have no hesitation in saying that the right to access and use the internet is a fundamental right of every individual under Article 21 read with Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Our children, irrespective of their age enjoy the same rights, and to deny the same altogether would be as absurd as saying children below a certain age do not have a conscience worth protecting or a freedom of speech worth expressing," it said. The judgment traced the constitutional protection for digital access through earlier Supreme Court rulings. In Anuradha Bhasin Vs Union of India (2020), the court recognised that freedom of speech and expression, as well as the freedom to carry on trade and business, could be exercised through the internet and were constitutionally protected. However, it had left open the question of whether access to the internet, in itself, constituted a fundamental right....