Malaysia might join the ranks of countries banning social media for minors.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2025/11/25/malaysia-considers-social-media-ban-for-minors
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2025/11/25/malaysia-considers-social-media-ban-for-minors
While kids can always find ways legitimate ways to bypass, I don’t necessarily mind the elimination of mind numbing nature of social media for minors - the government’s true intentions notwithstanding.
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As a non-parent, I think it takes away agency from the parents to decide when and how to introduce their kids to these things. While I realize that not all parents are actively engaged or tech savvy, I do think there’s a careful line government needs to tread when it comes to telling parents how to raise their kids. Obviously there’s a certain baseline level of “actually provide for and raise your damn kid,” but past that. I don’t claim to know where that line is, but I think it’s an important part of this discussion.
As an adult, another important thing that gets missed with age verification is that it affects everyone. I still have to submit ID to prove I’m over 18, not just kids. So “age verification for minors” is really “age verification for everyone,” and now I’m at risk from data breaches and other privacy violations, too.
And as Henry from Techlore pointed out several times on Surveillance Report back when we co-pro’d it, this also kind of takes away from the larger argument: social media has psychological harms on everyone, not just kids. It’s kind of messed up to say “this is bad for kids, but once you’re an adult everything is fair game.” Now, things get really messy and political here. We still legalize alcohol and cigarettes despite those being bad for everyone, and I know there’s hardcore libertarians in the crowd who would argue an absolute right to self destruction up to the maximum level. Again, there’s no easy answers here. But I do think Henry made a solid point every time he brought that up: why not just crack down on these companies and tell them to do better? These platforms are systematically harmful to people. They can be less damaging, but they choose not to be because they want to be addicting and constantly raking in more revenue and we decide somehow the real solution is to blame the end user? We can’t ignore that part of this argument either.
That’s my two cents.
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Yeah, it’s a pickle to be in. No right or wrong or good or bad. Tough issue, various viewpoints, freedoms, online harms, government control - this has everything complicated with no singular solution.
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