MCMC said it is performing continuous efforts to detect and request content takedown from social media platform providers. — IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said the upcoming Online Safety Act 2025 (ONSA 2025) will boost efforts to enhance online safety for children.
In a statement today (Dec 3), MCMC said it is now focusing on developing subsidiary instruments to reinforce the commitment of licensed service providers under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 in line with ONSA 2025 implementation.
This approach, it said, places child protection as a top priority, including platform risk management and preventive measures against such detrimental content.
"Onsa 2025 introduces a more proactive regulatory framework which sets out clear responsibilities for platforms to manage high-risk content such as child sex abuse material (CSAM), pornographic content, obscene content as well as content related to self-harm," MCMC said in a statement today (Dec 3).
MCMC is addressing criticism from the Parliament’s Special Select Committee on Women, Children and Social Development, which described the agency’s financial resources and capacity to monitor online harms affecting children as “far too low”.
During a Dewan Rakyat briefing yesterday (Dec 2), the parliamentary committee chairman Yeo Bee Yin said MCMC is still using manual methods, such as keyword searches, for its online monitoring.
MCMC said it is performing continuous efforts to detect and request content takedown from social media platform providers.
From Jan 1 to Nov 30 this year, MCMC said it has detected 957 offensive content involving children.
On content takedown, MCMC said 899 has been successfully removed by platform.
The commission stated that it also recorded a 94% compliance level, with Tumblr, TikTok and Facebook described as the most responsive platforms.
The regulatory body has also undertaken aggressive enforcement measures through joint operations with the Royal Malaysian Police.
Last year's Ops Pedo led to the arrest of 13 individuals and over 40,000 items involving CSAM were seized.
A second operation, Ops Pedo 2 in September this year saw the arrest of 31 suspects with over 880,000 content seized.
MCMC added that preparations for the implementation of ONSA 2025, as well as the enforcement of a minimum age of 16 for social media account registration starting in 2026, are also underway.
In a statement on Nov 25, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman said MCMC will be the primary and sole regulator for ONSA 2025.
She has said that ONSA 2025 is expected to come into effect on Jan 1, 2026.
