THE widespread use of social media by children below 12 is why network service providers will be required to provide parental control tools in the near future, says Fahmi Fadzil.
The Communications Minister said this was necessary as the minimum age requirement to sign up on social media platforms is insufficient to curb children from using them.
“This is based on my own experience when I meet students in my constituency during ‘Back To School’ programmes.
“When I ask who are on social media, for example TikTok, almost 90% of children between Year One and Six say they have TikTok accounts,” he said when replying to a question by Kamal Ashaari (PN-Kuala Krau).
Kamal had asked what was being done to curb the use of social media by those under the age of 15 to prevent them from following unhealthy trends.
Fahmi said that currently X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp require users to be above 13, while Telegram has set its age limit at 16.
“Although there are such guidelines, they are insufficient.
New plan: Fahmi speaking with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Dr Zaliha Mustafa (left) at the Dewan Rakyat. — Bernama
“As such, the ministry through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is working with the five network service providers, namely CelcomDigi, Maxis, U Mobile, Telekom Malaysia and Time dotcom, to introduce parental control tools,” he said.
He added that this would allow parents to monitor, filter and limit the use of social media by their children.
He said parents were still free to use other parental control tools available in the market.
He also said that the Cabinet set up a working committee last month to look at drafting new laws related to online and social media, besides taking immediate action to tackle current issues.
Meanwhile, Fahmi said the government has no plans to ban any social media platform service providers here.
He gave the assurance when asked by Onn Abu Bakar (PH-Batu Pahat) whether the government plans to ban social medial platforms detrimental to the nation.
Fahmi acknowledged that India banned TikTok about five years ago, while China only allows the use of Douyin as an alternative application.
The US government is currently looking at banning TikTok there.
“The issue of TikTok in the United States is more to do with data ownership rather than the application itself.
“These countries have their own aspects and different scenarios for their decisions,” he added.
Fahmi said the government here was taking a different approach, which is to work closely with social media platform providers while also looking at introducing laws to keep up with current needs.
