New Delhi, June 12 -- It is a question that has dogged the nation's collective conscience for years: should India restrict social-media access to protect children? As a global push gathers pace for restrictions on digital platforms that let users interact and share content, we will no longer be able to brush this policy idea under the carpet.

Less than six months after Australia became the first to ban children aged under 16 from accessing social media, Canada and the UK are set to join the list of countries that have either imposed age gates or are considering them.

Perhaps Indian states can be left to frame their own rules, as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have done. But there may be merit in devising a national framework that would ap...