Malaysia bans social media accounts for children under 16

Malaysia’s new under-16 social media ban is now in force, putting the country at the center of a growing global push to police children’s access to major digital platforms. Services with at least 8 million users in Malaysia, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, must deploy age-verification systems and prevent children younger than 16 from opening accounts, with penalties of up to 10 million ringgit, or about $2.5 million, for companies that fail to comply. Parents will not be punished if their children bypass the system.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said the rules sit inside the Online Safety Act 2025, or ONSA, which it says was designed to address harmful content and create a safer digital environment. The commission published the Child Protection Code and Risk Mitigation Code on May 22 after a public consultation that ran from February 12 to March 31, and said it had engaged social media platforms and other stakeholders 37 times over the previous six months. Regulators have framed the policy as a child-safety measure, not a full internet ban, and say the aim is to push platforms toward safer products and age-appropriate protections.

The mechanics of the ban are what make it consequential. MCMC has pressed for safety-by-design features that limit manipulative design, reduce compulsive use and force platforms to act against underage accounts and harmful material. That leaves the hardest question unanswered: how reliably can platforms verify age at scale without creating new privacy problems or encouraging families to work around the system?

That concern has already drawn criticism. ARTICLE 19 and Malaysian civil-society groups urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in April to withdraw the proposed ban, arguing that it was misguided and disproportionate and could undermine privacy and freedom of expression for adults and children alike. UNICEF Malaysia said in December that age bans alone would not keep children safe online and could have unintended consequences, including pushing children toward less regulated platforms where harm is harder to detect and report. Meta has also warned that a blanket ban could drive teens into less regulated corners of the internet, even as the company says it already offers teen accounts that limit contact, screen time and exposure to inappropriate content.

Malaysia’s move comes as Australia, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced or announced age-based restrictions or requirements, while Britain, France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are weighing similar steps. That makes Malaysia a real-world test of whether hard age gates can improve child safety online without simply shifting young users into harder-to-monitor spaces.