Bill empowers courts to restrict minors’ use of certain websites and social media platforms

TDT | Manama
Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Minors in Bahrain could soon face court-imposed daily limits on social media and website access as part of groundbreaking juvenile justice reforms aimed at steering vulnerable children away from online harm.

A package of government-proposed reforms to Bahrain’s juvenile justice law, including plans to let courts block children from using certain websites for hours at a time, is set to be debated in the Shura Council in the next session.

The Shura Council’s Women and Child Affairs Committee has already reviewed the bill and recommended it for approval in principle.

In a report issued after its deliberations, the committee said the amendments would allow Bahrain’s child justice system to respond more quickly to individual cases while keeping the child’s welfare at its core.

The committee also welcomed the addition of digital restrictions, describing them as a practical tool for steering children away from harmful content when used proportionately and under court supervision.

Scrutiny

The proposal, which amends the 2021 Reform Justice for Children and Protection from Maltreatment Law, has already been approved by Parliament.

MPs passed the bill under urgent procedure earlier this month and referred it to the upper house for final scrutiny.

The new provisions would allow courts and child justice panels to prohibit minors from using certain websites or social media platforms for up to 12 hours per day.

The restriction would apply in cases where it is judged necessary and must not interfere with the child’s education, religious practice, or employment.

Option

The courts would also have the option to place children under house supervision, with parents or guardians responsible for reporting back on compliance.

The proposed changes go further than that.

Currently, a child or their guardian must wait three months before submitting a second request to change or cancel a sentence if an earlier one was rejected. That delay would be removed.

Courts would be allowed to consider new requests at any time, responding more swiftly to changes in a child’s behaviour or situation.

Judges would also be granted wider discretion in sentencing.

Where a child has been sentenced to both imprisonment and a fine, the court may choose one or the other, as is already the case.

But where the sentence involves a prison term without a set minimum, the court would now be allowed to substitute a fine instead.

Crucially, if the offence involved a recognised excuse or a mitigating circumstance, the court could forgo punishment altogether and impose a reform measure instead.

This change applies not only to misdemeanours but to felonies as well, which marks a clear shift in how the law approaches serious offences committed by minors.

Monitoring

Monitoring would also be tightened.

At present, courts assess a child’s progress only once, halfway through the sentence.

The new law would require reform centres to submit reports every six months or more frequently if the court demands it.

These reports would be used to decide whether to keep the sentence in place, change it, or end it early.

The intention is to make the system more responsive and prevent children from being held in inappropriate conditions simply because of a fixed timeline.

Reform Schemes

The role of the Child Protection Centre would also be reinforced.

It would remain responsible for following up on children placed in reform schemes, training programmes, or care homes.

But under the amended law, the Centre must now coordinate with the Interior Ministry when assessing cases or proposing changes.

The same joint role applies when responding to complaints or alerts from institutions housing children.

Hospitals, care homes, and rehabilitation centres would be obliged to inform both the Centre and the Ministry of any serious health incident, disappearance, or sudden behavioural shift.