India: Digital Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Act (182/2024) was introduced in Parliament

On 5 December 2025, the Digital Personal Data Protection (Amendment) Act (182/2024) was introduced in the lower house of the Indian Parliament (Lok Sabha). The proposed Act amends the Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 2023 to define “child” as any individual between the ages of 13 and 16, where previously it indicated any individual under 18. It modifies section 7 to include the protection of the rights of children, gender minorities, and persons with disabilities, as well as data transference to another Fiduciary, as acceptable reasons for personal data processing by the Data Fiduciary. It modifies section 9 to create the possibility for future law to set an age at which children may self-consent to data processing based on their cognitive development level. It also modifies section 9 to enable the Central Government to restrict Data Fiduciaries from tracking, behavioural monitoring, and targeted advertising directed at children based on an assessment of associated risk, rather than banning all such activities. Finally, it modifies sections 9 and 40 to permit data processing for self-assessment purposes with government approval, and to enable future legislation detailing the conditions for this exemption and the conditions under which a Data Fiduciary may be exempted from the requirement to obtain parental consent.