Malaysia requires social media age checks barring under-16 accounts

A person types on a cellphone in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia will require major social media platforms to verify users’ ages and bar children under 16 from registering accounts under new online safety rules that took effect on Monday.

The requirements apply to providers with at least eight million users in the Southeast Asian country -- including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

But platforms will be given a grace period to implement the measures, the communications regulator has said, without specifying its duration.

The country is the latest to attempt to restrict young people’s access to social media platforms, as concern grows worldwide over their negative impact on child wellbeing.

From Monday, “users below the age of 16 are not permitted to register for social media accounts”, according to an FAQ document released by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) before the new rules came in.

Platforms are expected to implement “age verification measures”, the FAQ said, including checks against government-issued records such as identity cards or passports.

The regulations under the country’s Online Safety Act -- the new Child Protection Code and Risk Mitigation Code -- also require “stronger content governance” on social media.

Platforms must “implement proactive and systemic measures to mitigate harmful content risks” such as “reporting and response mechanisms, advertiser verification measures and the labelling of manipulated content where appropriate”.

Failure to comply with the two codes could result in financial penalties for the companies of up to 10 million Malaysian ringgit (US$2.5 million), the MCMC said.

Global reckoning

Australia in December became the first country to require TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other top sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, or face heavy fines.

However, three months since the landmark laws came into effect, Australia’s online safety watchdog has found a “substantial proportion of Australian children” were still scrolling banned platforms.

Like in Canberra, Indonesia also placed the onus on platforms to regulate teen access, with a social media ban for under-16s enforced in March in a bid to protect some 70 million children from the threats of online pornography, cyberbullying and internet addiction.

The ban initially targeted eight “high risk” platforms -- YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, and Roblox.

All of the targeted platforms have pledged to comply with the ban, Indonesia’s digital minister Meutya Hafid said last month, but the ban will eventually apply to “all digital platforms”, with the government considering also enforcing it on online shopping sites, he told AFP in May.

The Turkish parliament approved a law in April to prevent children under 15 accessing social media platforms.

And some European countries, including Norway, Greece, France, Spain and Denmark, have said they will introduce similar restrictions.

‘Blanket ban’ criticism

“Child users who do not complete age verification may be unable to create an account and face restrictions on account access or platform features,” the Malaysian FAQ read.

The commission said the measures were “not intended to prohibit child users from the internet or to deny them access to technology”, but to promote age-appropriate access to social media.

However, monitoring groups have urged Malaysia to withdraw the “blanket ban” on social media for under-16s.

“Children should not be prohibited from accessing the digital world, they should be able to do so safely and in ways that protect their rights,” the U.K.-based freedom of expression monitor Article 19 and other groups said in a joint statement Friday.

“The proposed blanket social media ban does not address the root issues of social media companies’ business models and services,” they said.

By Isabelle Leong.