The Verification Paradox: A Socio-Legal Critique Of Verifiable Parental Consent Under India’s DPDP Framework
- IJLLR Journal
- Jan 27
- 1 min read
Shweta Chaturvedi, Solace Law Practice
ABSTRACT
This article interrogates the requirement of verifiable parental consent (VPC) under Section 9 of India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 through a socio-legal and constitutional lens. It argues that the Act’s identity- centric design produces a “verification paradox,” whereby mechanisms intended to protect children incentivise excessive data collection, erode privacy, and undermine adolescent autonomy. By mandating uniform parental consent for all individuals below eighteen, the framework adopts a structurally overbroad approach that conflicts with constitutional proportionality, ignores the principle of evolving capacities, and departs from comparative global standards. The article further demonstrates how the operationalisation of VPC under the DPDP Rules, 2025 generates systemic incentives toward identity-heavy compliance practices, contradicting the Act’s own commitments to data minimisation and purpose limitation. It critiques the discretionary exemption regime under Section 9(4) as administratively unstructured and normatively vulnerable to arbitrariness and market capture. Situating the analysis within India’s broader political economy of digital governance and drawing parallels with Aadhaar’s function creep, the article highlights the exclusionary consequences of VPC for marginalised children and adolescents. It concludes by advancing a reform-oriented framework grounded in proportionality, privacy-preserving age assurance, differentiated age thresholds, and constitutionally coherent regulatory design.
