Malaysia says it will ban social media for under-16s from next year

Move comes arsenic a increasing fig of countries are rolling retired measures to bounds children’s vulnerability to integer platforms.

Malaysia plans to prohibition societal media for users nether the property of 16 starting from adjacent year, joining a increasing database of countries choosing to limit entree to integer platforms owed to concerns astir kid safety.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said connected Sunday the authorities was reviewing mechanisms utilized to enforce property restrictions for societal media usage successful Australia and different nations, citing a request to support youths from online harms specified arsenic cyberbullying, fiscal scams and kid intersexual abuse.

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“We anticipation by adjacent twelvemonth that societal media platforms volition comply with the government’s determination to barroom those nether the property of 16 from opening idiosyncratic accounts,” helium told reporters, according to a video of his remarks posted online by section regular The Star.

The effects of societal media connected children’s wellness and information person go a increasing planetary concern, with companies including TikTok, Snapchat, Google and Meta Platforms – the relation of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – facing lawsuits successful the United States for their relation successful driving a intelligence wellness crisis.

In Australia, societal media platforms are poised to deactivate accounts registered to users younger than 16 adjacent month, nether a sweeping prohibition for teenagers that is being intimately watched by regulators astir the world.

France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Greece are besides jointly testing a template for an property verification app.

Malaysia’s neighbour Indonesia said successful January it planned to acceptable a minimum property for societal media users, but aboriginal issued a little stringent regularisation requiring tech platforms to filter antagonistic contented and enforce stronger property verification measures.

Malaysia has enactment societal media companies nether greater scrutiny successful caller years in effect to what it claims to be a emergence successful harmful content, including online gambling and posts related to race, religion and royalty.

Platforms and messaging services with much than 8 cardinal users successful Malaysia are present required to get a licence nether a caller regularisation that came into effect successful January.