By Admin 
- Social media ban on children under 16 years of age in Malaysia from June 1.
- There will be increased responsibility to ensure the safety of children on online platforms.
- Government focused on protecting children from online gambling, exploitation, cyber bullying.
- Preparation to implement age verification system, companies will be affected.
Social Media Ban: The Malaysian government is now going to take a big step regarding the online safety of children. From June 1, such new rules will be implemented in the country, under which it will not be easy for children below 16 years of age to create accounts on social media platforms. The government wants to protect underage users from dangerous and harmful content on the Internet.
Responsibility will increase on social media companies
According to the Communications and Multimedia Commission of Malaysia (MCMC), the responsibility of enforcing the new rules will fall directly on the online platforms. This means that now social media companies will have to ensure that underage children cannot easily create accounts.
Apart from this, companies will have to strengthen content moderation, take prompt action on complaints and verify the identity of advertisers properly. If any content has been changed or tampered, it will also be necessary to clearly label it. Although companies will be given some time relaxation to implement these rules, its duration has not been decided yet.
Government’s focus on children’s safety
In the last few years, cases of online fraud, cyber bullying and objectionable content related to children have increased rapidly in Malaysia. For this reason, the government is increasing strict monitoring on social media platforms.
The threats the government is most concerned about include online gambling, scams, child exploitation, cyber bullying and inflammatory content related to religion or race. Officials believe that it has become extremely important to keep young children away from such content.
Age verification system may start soon
Malaysia is also preparing to launch age verification system for users this year. Under this, social media platforms may have to confirm the age of users. However, this is also considered to be the biggest challenge. If platforms ask for identity proof, people’s privacy may be at risk. On the other hand, questions have also been raised on the accuracy of third-party age verification tools. Now it remains to be seen how Malaysia handles this balance.
Increasing strictness in many countries of the world
Malaysia is not the only country that is cracking down on children’s social media use. Australia passed a law in 2024 that almost completely bans social media for children under 16 years of age.
Apart from this, similar rules have also been implemented in many states of France, Britain and America. In India too, the Goa government has ordered to ban the use of social media by children below 16 years of age.
Impact on companies like Meta, TikTok and YouTube
The new rules will also affect the world’s big tech companies. Companies like Meta, TikTok, YouTube and X may now have to make changes to their systems and policies in Malaysia.
There is a large number of young internet users in South-East Asia, hence this area is considered very important for tech companies. But now increasing government regulations are becoming a new challenge for these companies.
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