Malaysia on Monday started imposing guidelines barring hundreds of thousands of kids youthful than 16 from proudly owning social media accounts, becoming a member of a world effort to tighten on-line security protections for younger customers.
The foundations require social media platforms to implement age-verification techniques and block customers beneath 16 from creating accounts. They apply to platforms with no less than 8 million customers, together with Fb, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Firms that fail to conform may face penalties of as much as 10 million ringgit ($2.5 million). However mother and father whose kids handle to bypass the legislation won’t be penalised.
The federal government mentioned the measures are geared toward defending kids from dangerous content material, cyberbullying and platform options designed to encourage extreme use.
Different international locations together with Australia, Brazil and Indonesia have launched or introduced age-based restrictions or necessities for kids’s entry to social media. Nations together with Britain, France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are additionally learning or creating related approaches.
Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Fee mentioned the principles aren’t supposed to forestall kids from accessing the web or digital know-how. As a substitute it set expectations for service suppliers to handle on-line harms and guarantee age-appropriate safeguards are in place.
“These measures assist strengthen the safety of kids within the on-line surroundings, whereas offering added reassurance to oldsters in navigating more and more complicated digital dangers,” the regulator mentioned in a press release final month.
Platforms might be required to introduce safety-by-design options, together with protections towards manipulative design that encourages compulsive use, and take motion towards underage accounts and dangerous content material.
Know-how corporations have but to element how they are going to adjust to Malaysia’s new necessities.
The regulator mentioned a grace interval might be given for platforms to finish implementation of age-verification techniques.
Clara Koh, Meta’s director of public coverage for Southeast Asia, had cautioned in April that Malaysia’s blanket under-16 ban may backfire by driving youngsters away from protected apps and into unregulated corners of the web.
She mentioned Meta has launched “teen accounts” for these beneath 18 that limits contact, display screen time and publicity to inappropriate content material.
Malaysia’s curbs come as governments face rising strain to handle considerations about social media’s affect on kids’s psychological well being and on-line security.
In March, a U.S. jury ordered Meta and YouTube to pay hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in damages in a case alleging that platform design options contributed to hurt suffered by a younger person.
Regardless of help from many mother and father, Malaysia’s transfer has additionally raised considerations over knowledge privateness.
“It is extremely a lot following the pattern however in a method that’s elevating alarms resulting from requiring a authorities ID for age verification,” mentioned Benjamin Loh, social science lecturer at Monash College in Malaysia.
Loh mentioned experiences elsewhere recommend age-based restrictions have but to show persistently efficient. With out mum or dad penalties, he mentioned households can simply bypass the legislation by creating accounts for his or her kids.
“It is a main hole that until regulators are prepared to repair, will outcome within the legislation having little impact in stopping kids from utilizing social media,” he added.
Revealed – June 01, 2026 09:01 am IST