The Government has launched consultations to establish a regulatory framework aimed at protecting children from certain content available on worldwide web and social media.

According to Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, the move is to protect children from the ills of social media.

He said while the internet has some positives that can help in the development of children, there are also dangers, including certain content that children should not have access to.

“I recognized that once you bring regulations to things such as social media suspicions are excited. I want to assure that the government has no ulterior or nefarious motive. This is not an attempt to censor, this is not an attempt to interfere with anyone’s freedom of expression or thought or access the media, this is simply for the protection of our children,” Mr. Nandlall noted.

Mr. Nandlall believes that the time has come for social media to be regulated generally, saying that an unregulated social media can create some dangers to society.

He said while the government has gone at and advanced stage in regulating social media for children, background work is being done on a model legislation, borrowing from legislation from European and other countries that have already been enacted in relation to social media and children.

“So, we are not going to reinvent the wheels, we will borrow from those models and of course we will examine the peculiarities of our society, we will examine the social realities of our society, we will examine the sensitivities of our society and craft a model that is best suited for us. Significantly, we are going to do so in a consultative manner,” the AG said.

Mr. Nandlall said he is hoping for wide as possible consultations to get everyone especially parents, guardians and teachers involved.

“This type of law largely requires the cooperation and the participation of the parents, the guardians, the grandparents, the elder, the teachers and those persons that interact generally with the children. So that is a very crucial initiative that we have launched and we will be coming to your community to hold consultations,” Nandlall noted.

Once the consultations are completed the Government will be taking legislation to the National Assembly to have the process formalized.

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