In a regulatory move, Malaysia has officially banned children under the age of 16 from opening or maintaining social media accounts, effective June 1, 2026. The mandate falls under the Child Protection Code (CPC) and Risk Mitigation Code (RMC) within the country’s Online Safety Act.
The restrictions target licensed social media services with eight million or more users in Malaysia, which includes heavyweights like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. To ensure compliance, platforms must deploy strict age verification measures rather than relying on self-declaration. Users are required to verify their ages against official government-issued records.
Platforms will be given a grace period to implement these changes, but non-compliance could lead to financial penalties of up to 10 million Malaysian ringgit (~$2.5 million).
Beyond the under-16 restriction, the regulations require stronger content governance. Platforms must adopt “Safety-by-Design” defaults by setting minor privacy features to the highest level, restricting unknown adults from directly messaging children, and curbing manipulative features that cause compulsive use. Algorithms and content recommendation systems must also be modified to prevent exposing young users to harmful content. Furthermore, to combat fraud, sponsored ads are only allowed if uploaded by verified accounts.
While Malaysia aligns with global trends in Australia, Indonesia, and Turkey to restrict youth digital access, monitoring groups like UK-based Article 19 have criticised the “blanket ban.” They argue it harms children’s rights by isolating them from the digital world and restricting information access instead of reforming platform business models.
