Malaysia plans social media age checks, pushes Meta to get proactive on online safety

Malaysia is following Australia’s lead, with a plan to implement age assurance requirements for social media platforms and a prohibition on accounts for users under 16. A report in The Star quotes Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil, who says he will be closely watching Australia’s rollout for lessons.

The government initially set the age threshold for social media accounts at 13. Now, in addition to raising it by three years, it is also implementing a requirement for eKYC for digital identity verification and age checks at registration, with Fahmi saying businesses should expect to be compliant by next year.

Malaysia is also weighing a ban on smartphone use for children 16 and under.

Meta not doing enough to stop scams, CSAM

The KYC and age verification requirements for social media come in the wake of a conflict with Meta over the government’s imposition of a framework for social media platforms with at least 8 million local users, which aims to curtail scams, online gambling and the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to SCMP.

The framework requires Meta’s platforms, Instagram and Facebook, to gain licensing approval, or face fines of 500,000 ringgit (about US$118,500) and up to five years’ jail time for its officers.

Fahmi has accused Facebook of being lax in its efforts to block CSAM from its platform, saying the company needs to be “much more proactive in combating group accounts on its social media platforms that engage in such sexual criminal activities.”

Meta “disagrees” with this assessment, saying it has been working to be better at stopping scams and prioritizing children’s well being.

The social media giant is facing allegations it has shuttered its own research into the mental health impacts of Facebook and Instagram.

Article Topics

age verification  |  children  |  KYC  |  Malaysia  |  Meta  |  social media