Governments should look beyond imposing social media bans on children and instead hold digital platforms accountable by reforming their business models, algorithms, and design features.
KUALA LUMPUR: Governments should look beyond imposing social media bans on children and instead hold digital platforms accountable by reforming their business models, algorithms, and design features to create a safer online environment for young users.
Senior Researcher with the Tech Policy Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), Dr Anda Bologa, said age-based restrictions alone would not eliminate online harms if the fundamental architecture of social media platforms remains unchanged.
“The problem I see with these bans is that they do not challenge the existing business models and architecture of social media companies. Instead, they are just building a fence to restrict children from accessing them,” she said.
Speaking via video link on Bernama TV’s Bernama World programme titled ‘The Global Push to Ban Social Media for Children’ today, Bologa said that governments should focus on making digital spaces safer for all users by addressing harmful platform features such as infinite scrolling, addictive design, and algorithm-driven content recommendations.
She said restrictions could also be difficult to enforce as children are often capable of finding ways to bypass them.
“Children are very inventive. They can bypass the fence that governments are trying to build and access social media through other means, whether through technical means or by using their older siblings’ or parents’ accounts, or simply browsing without an account, which in the end does not help keep them safe and protected,” she said.
On age verification, Bologa warned that the approach could create privacy and security risks as platforms or third-party providers would need to verify users’ identities before determining whether they are minors.
“One of the problems I see is that, to enforce this measure, you have to police everyone. To identify a child accessing your service, you have to check everyone accessing it,” she said.
She said the technical measures required to verify users’ ages are complicated, often fail, and could hand significant control to social media platforms or third-party providers tasked with collecting and securing users’ personal data.
She also cautioned that restricting children’s access to social media could have unintended consequences, particularly for those in remote areas or those who rely on online platforms to build social connections with their peers.
Malaysia began enforcing age verification requirements for the registration of social media accounts on June 1 under the Child Protection Code (CPC) and Risk Mitigation Code (RMC), implemented by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) under the Online Safety Act 2025 (ONSA).
Under the regulations, individuals below the age of 16 are not allowed to open social media accounts, while users are required to verify their identities using official documents such as MyKad, passport or MyDigital ID.
