Malaysia’s Social Media Ban for Under-16s: Protection or Overreach?

The Malaysian government announced last month that it would ban access to social media for Malaysians under 16 years of age, starting from 2026. Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil cited the need to protect youths from online harms such as cyberbullying, financial scams and child sexual abuse. This policy decision had been deliberated over the past year, given concerns over exposure to inappropriate content for children and younger teenagers, which were accelerated following recent violent incidents involving Malaysian youth. A UNICEF report warns that one in four Malaysian children are exposed to sexual or disturbing online content.

Malaysia is not alone in its efforts at restricting social media access for teenagers. Australia is the first country to ban social media for under-16s starting this month, the United Kingdom is enforcing new laws that will protect under-18s from harmful online content, while Singapore is considering how to police age-appropriate content on social media platforms. For a start, Singapore secondary schools will forbid smartphone and smartwatch use throughout school hours starting in 2026. Malaysia’s Education Ministry prohibits students from taking smartphones to school, but tablets and laptops are permitted with school approval. Australia, France and Britain ban smartphone use in schools.

While social media and digital platforms cannot be said to directly cause violence, they are “powerful risk multipliers”, where young people are exposed to harmful content. Professor Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist researching social media usage trends in the US, found that depression and anxiety in adolescent boys and girls accelerated between 2010 and 2020, which he attributed to the widespread adoption of smartphones. In his book The Anxious Generation, he argues that harms resulted from this use, such as social and sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction, negatively affecting American teenagers.

Reactions in Malaysia to the proposed social media ban are mixed. On the one hand, Malaysian parents back social media curbs to limit their children’s so-called “brain rot”. Analysts and digital rights advocates, on the other hand, cite privacy concerns over the government’s intentions. The government plans to use the electronic know-your-customer (eKYC) method to enforce the ban, but this would involve the use of identity documents such as passports, identity cards and Malaysians’ electronic identification (MyDigital ID) to identify users’ identities.

This means all Malaysians, regardless of age, would need to submit their identities online to access any social media platform. Several rights-based organisations have flagged this as potentially damaging to data privacy and freedom of expression. This is especially so since anonymity is crucial in a national context where social media is actively used as a tool for advocacy and discourse.

The Malaysian government, even in its haste to ban social media for under-16s, ought not to infringe on data privacy issues, given there are other workable options (listed below). It will need to conduct meaningful consultations with relevant stakeholders before choosing an outright ban and implementing it. If not, such a ban risks being perceived as a child protection measure that is also an attempt at potentially exercising excessive political and state control.

In the 14th general election of November 2022, for instance, the federal opposition coalition Perikatan Nasional (PN) used TikTok to widely disseminate its messages. However, several of its videos arguably bordered on hate speech: one video allegedly linked to PN suggested that the 1969 “race war” could recur should the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and its Pakatan Harapan coalition come to power. The Malaysian government then put TikTok on notice, arguing that the social media giant failed to curb defamatory or misleading content.

While there is concern about the unregulated use of influencers and social media in political campaigns, the consideration of restricted social media access for teenagers ought to be taken as a separate matter. More refined and thoughtfully applied policy tools are needed in the case of regulating social media content and usage for minors.

There are alternatives to the eKYC method. Zero-knowledge proofs, for example, are an industry-tested method of age verification that confirms users’ eligibility (to use certain platforms or access sites) without revealing additional personal information. Without considering these other policy choices and simply implementing an eKYC-based social media ban, the government’s move might be interpreted as a political calculation rather than a genuine effort to protect Malaysia’s children and young teens.

The Malaysian government, even in its haste to ban social media for under-16s, ought not to infringe on data privacy issues, given there are other workable options…

Beyond a ban, whose effectiveness is yet to be determined, there are other means the government can include in its policy toolkit.

First, it can instate mandatory parental controls at device level, a mechanism that is already available in smartphone operating systems. This places the responsibility on parents to activate device-level controls, including honestly setting their child’s age at the outset – which can be automatically linked to any web-based platforms and accounts.

Second, greater attention should be on social media platform accountability and governance, specifically how they use engagement-based algorithms and design techniques that reportedly “manipulate user behaviour and promote unhealthy usage, harming young users’ mental health and wellbeing”, which are findings from studies done in the US.

While Meta is introducing built-in restrictions for Instagram Teen Accounts, which are being expanded to Facebook and Messenger, much more transparency and accountability is needed around how all platforms’ algorithms, which ultimately prioritise advertisement revenue, affect users’ content feeds.

To this end, the Malaysian government could, for instance, enact a law that requires social media platforms providing services in Malaysia to conduct mandatory algorithm risk audits, similar to the proposed Social Media Algorithm Accountability Act, which is currently being debated in the US Congress. Malaysia could also consider replicating Brazil’s new Digital Child Protection Act (August 2025) to protect children’s rights online by shifting the onus of responsibility on digital platforms to remove harmful content, enhance parental controls, implement age verification, remove targeted advertising and limit player interactions within games. Ultimately, any policies that Malaysia’s government implements will be inadequate in addressing the real concern of social media’s impact on Malaysia’s children and teenagers. Action from multiple players from across society is required to ensure the effectiveness of any social media restrictions. Digital parenting training programmes are needed to equip Malaysia’s parents with skills to do so, while schools, communities, platforms and companies will need to comprehensively align in providing teenagers a better social media experience towards a safer-screen society.

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