ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has informed the Islamabad High Court that it lacked the statutory authority to impose mandatory age verification or restrict social media access for minors under 16, citing significant technical limitations and a shifting legal landscape under the new Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) 2025.
In a detailed report submitted to the Islamabad High Court in response to a writ petition filed by Waqas Nasir seeking to restrict social media use by underage users, the PTA said that while it acknowledged the importance of protecting children from online harms, the relief sought by the petitioner, specifically a universal minimum age for social media accounts, went beyond its existing legal mandate.
The PTA’s response emphasised that it was a statutory regulator bound to exercise only the powers conferred upon it by law. The authority argued that it could not create a new statutory age-verification regime through administrative action alone.
Furthermore, the PTA highlighted a major transition in the regulatory landscape. With the promulgation of Peca 2025, a new body, the Social Media Protection and Regulatory Authority (SMPRA), was set to replace the PTA in regulating social media platforms.
The PTA noted that until the SMPRA was officially notified, it continued to perform its functions under the original Peca 2016 framework on a “best-efforts basis”, but its mandate regarding content removal and blocking had become “transitory in nature”.
The report provided a detailed technical analysis of why regulating content on social media platforms was fraught with difficulty.
OTT services
The PTA explained that major platforms such as Facebook, Google and X operated as “over the top” (OTT) services.
These companies are not licensed by the PTA, nor are they registered in Pakistan, meaning they are not bound by local codes of conduct.
The PTA identified two primary options for regulators: approaching the operators directly or taking technical action. However, the authority noted that requests to social media operators were often evaluated under their own “community guidelines”, which might not align with Pakistani laws.
Technically, the PTA pointed out that most platforms used HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) encryption.
This security protocol prevents third-party monitoring from identifying specific resources or individual pieces of content being accessed within an encrypted connection. Consequently, blocking a specific URL on an HTTPS platform is nearly impossible without blocking the entire website, which would also disrupt access to legitimate content.
The report also touched upon the emerging challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI). While noting that AI made digital interactions easier, the PTA said it also posed “certain challenges”, contributing to the complexity of regulating content in a rapidly evolving technological environment.
Despite these limitations, the PTA defended its track record, presenting a “URL blocking summary” showing that it had processed more than 17 million URLs, blocking approximately 88.20 per cent of them.
The report also detailed extensive awareness campaigns, including collaborations with Unicef, TikTok, Meta and GSMA, aimed at promoting digital literacy and protecting children online.
The PTA has prayed to the court to dismiss the petition to the extent that it sought relief beyond the authority’s statutory mandate.
It maintained that any allegation of failure must be assessed against specific statutory duties, which, in the current legal context, did not include the power to prescribe a minimum age of 16 for social media users.
Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2026
