No plans to penalise parents for underage social media use - deputy minister

 

PARLIAMENT | Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said the government does not have plans to penalise parents over underage social media use once new regulations prohibiting under-16s are implemented in 2026.

However, she issued a firm reminder to parents and adults that they still had the responsibility to constantly educate children on safe internet habits, and urged them to monitor their internet consumption.

“When we say we will not allow under-16s to have social media accounts, it does not mean that they cannot use the internet at all. There is a huge difference, I want to stress this. Regardless, parents still have the responsibility to monitor their children.

“The issue here is if parents give phones without monitoring the content consumed by their children, then are we also ready to take action against such parents?

“For now, there is no such decision at the ministerial or cabinet level. But for issues like these, discussions and consensus are very important.

“We need the political will to overcome this issue, and we will be firm when we discuss this with platform providers,” she said in the Communications Ministry’s winding-up speech during Budget 2026’s second reading in the Dewan Rakyat today.

‘Different from Australia’

Teo also clarified that the implementation of the e-KYC system to prevent youths under 16 from accessing social media would be conducted differently than in Australia.

According to Teo, Australia’s age restrictions on social media are based on an “age assurance” system, unlike Malaysia’s proposed policy, which relies on “age verification” through verification of official identity documents.

However, despite privacy concerns raised over the policy, Teo highlighted how similar e-KYC methods are already being implemented by social media platforms before issuing verified “blue tick” accounts.

Ramkarpal Singh (Harapan-Bukit Gelugor) further questioned if the Communications Ministry had conducted engagement sessions with other ministries regarding the implementation of this policy.

In response, Teo said that they frequently communicated with the Education and Home ministries, as well as the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), to address the issue of social media addiction and irresponsible use among youngsters.

She also reiterated that they had conducted nationwide digital literacy campaigns across at least 8,000 schools this year.

Similarly, Bakhtiar Wan Chik (Harapan-Balik Pulau) also suggested that the government should not implement policy simply as a “knee-jerk reaction,” without first addressing the root causes of such issues.

“Just because Australia banned social media for under 16s, it doesn’t mean we also have to immediately follow suit… But more importantly, we should also teach important digital ethics to parents as well, instead of solely focusing on children,” he said.

In response, Teo reiterated her earlier claims that the policy was not meant to prohibit, but to regulate internet use among youths, and that parents were responsible for monitoring their children.

“It is impossible for us to prohibit our children from using the internet completely, because it is still beneficial to our children. My own kids also need to do their homework using the internet.

“But what is most important for parents and adults to understand is their responsibilities. If we decide to allow our children to access the internet, then we need to ensure that the content they access is also being monitored,” she reminded. - Mkini