Malaysia's Communications Minister, Fahmi Fadzil, has announced that his government plans to ban access to social media for individuals under 16 years of age starting in 2026, following the lead of other countries like Australia. During a speech at a seminar organized by the ministry, Fahmi stated that the executive aims to strengthen children's safety in cyberspace and that from next year, all platform providers will be required to implement electronic identity verification. «Each country can adopt a different approach, but we will study the most suitable method to ensure that under-16s cannot have social media accounts,» the minister declared at the event held on Sunday in Kuala Lumpur, as reported by the news portal Free Malaysia Today. This measure comes amid growing concerns over the rise in cyberbullying incidents, following the death in July of a 13-year-old girl who was a victim of bullying at her school. In recent years, Malaysia has subjected social media companies to greater scrutiny in response to what authorities consider an increase in harmful content online. In April, Fahmi met with representatives of TikTok and Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) and urged them to provide a plan to combat the proliferation of harmful content, the need for a process to protect children under 13 from the influence of these platforms, and to review algorithms driven by artificial intelligence, among other issues. Thus, Malaysia joins the ranks of other nations concerned about the spread of unmoderated content on social media, the resulting problems, and their influence on younger generations. Australia is set to begin enforcing its ban on social media access for under-16s from December 10. Companies found in breach of the Australian law could face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (approximately 32 million US dollars or 27.7 million euros).
