SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): A daily time limit on social media is among several mandatory safeguards for teenagers that the Government is considering to combat features that fuel addiction and dangerous interactions.
This can help to introduce a natural stopping point, said Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo in a media interview on Aug 28.
“The very nature of infinite scroll is that you don’t have a natural stop point; you keep going on and on,” said Teo. “A time limit for the use of a particular platform... could be one way of dealing with infinite scroll.”
She added that daily time limits are being “seriously discussed”.
During the one-hour interview, she provided more details on what Singapore plans to do to protect the social interactions and mental health of its young people, a topic which surfaced for the second year at the 2026 National Day Rally.
On Aug 23, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in his Rally speech that social media platforms that want to serve under-18 users in Singapore must put in place stronger safeguards to protect them from unhealthy comparisons and social isolation, marking a shift away from relying solely on parental responsibility and platform self-regulation towards firm legislative interventions.
“Stronger safeguards relate to how teenage users interact, particularly with strangers, and whether sufficient protections are in place. The safeguards also apply to features that prolong use, such as autoplay and infinite scrolling,” said Teo.
She added that legislative changes will be tabled early in 2027 to facilitate enforcement through age checks.
Singapore’s move comes on the heels of Meta’s US$18 billion (S$23 billion) landmark settlement with US states and territories to resolve claims that Facebook and Instagram have harmed children.
As part of the settlement, Meta will also make major design changes to Facebook and Instagram for users under 18. These changes include restricting combined use on the two platforms to two hours a day, enforcing a curfew from midnight to 6am, hiding likes and reactions on teen accounts, and banning filters that alter the appearance of a user’s image.
Asked whether Singapore would request similar changes, Teo said the features being restricted – autoplay, direct messages from strangers, and algorithmic feeds – reflect Singapore’s desire, but the details of implementation may differ.
Advising against fixating on a specific number for acceptable social media use, she said: “The more important thing is, what does a daily time limit achieve? It really is a reminder that we should engage in other aspects of our lives.”
She said Singapore also needs to consider two other reference points cited by an expert panel put together by the Ministry of Health.
In the panel’s report released in July, it highlighted that one in three users aged 15 to 17 already uses social media for more than three hours a day, and that one in six users aged 10 to 24 shows signs of problematic use.
“This suggests that three hours is a little too long and (the daily time limit) should be less than that,” said Teo.
The panel also listed problematic features such as infinite scroll and autoplay functions, which encourage users to remain engaged for longer than they intended, and visible “like” counts that encourage social comparison and validation-seeking.
“The kind of stronger safeguards we’re looking for must address these observations that the expert panel made,” said Teo, adding that the features have to be turned off by default.
She said social media services unable or unwilling to introduce the safeguards may have to raise their minimum age requirement from the industry standard of 13 to 18.
Teo explained that 18 is generally accepted as a marker of adulthood, and is also the age that users in Singapore have to be in order to download apps that have adult content.
Upcoming legislative changes to mandate age checks will underpin the mandatory safeguards for teen users.
Possible methods to ascertain one’s age include checking government-issued identity documents or credit card information, scanning faces or analysing online usage.
These are methods that app stores in Singapore use to prevent users under 18 from downloading inappropriate apps.
“The approach that we take is: You implement, we will audit and where we find gaps, we will tell you, expect you to fix and close those gaps.”
Teo also explained why Singapore may not need to deal with children evading age checks, unlike in countries such as Australia and Indonesia, which have banned social media access for those under 16.
“For them, it is binary: You are either on it or off it, and when you are on it, it is the full experience without the training wheels. In our case, it is a service that comes with safeguards, and a fuller experience when a young person is more ready at 18 and beyond,” she said.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, HardwareZone, X and YouTube will be the first six social media platforms to be required to implement age checks, said Teo.
She said that more platforms, including gaming sites, messaging platforms and AI chatbots, will be added over time when problematic uses become clearer through research and debate.
Singapore is keenly aware that restrictions alone will not produce the desired outcome, and has started movements – such as Screen Smart From The Start by the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) in May – to cultivate healthier digital habits.
MDDI’s Be Screen Smart portal offers tips to help parents curate online content for their children and suggests offline activities for families.
Many parents might find it difficult to devote time and attention to helping their children with social media use, so the proposed measures are meant to act as a baseline standard of safeguards that parents can count on to protect their children, said Teo.
“Beyond that, I think we will have to continue to work on supporting parents and helping them build a healthy relationship with their children from a young age.” -- The Straits Times/Asia News Network
