Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi announced on Sunday that he plans to ban minors under the age of 16 from using social media starting next year and requires platform parties to fully implement electronic identity verification by 2026. This move means that Malaysia has officially followed Australia's legislative steps and built the world's most stringent digital defense line for minors, trying to block the harm of online bullying, financial fraud and harmful information to young people from the source through mandatory real-name authentication.
The relevant Australian ban is scheduled to officially take effect on December 10. If Facebook, TikTok and other platforms fail to take "reasonable steps" to prevent minors from registering, they will face huge fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (about 32 million U.S. dollars). Meta has announced that it will take the lead in cleaning up illegal accounts in Australia starting from December 4. Malaysia said it is conducting an in-depth study of Australia's law enforcement mechanism and will force users to upload official documents such as ID cards or passports for age verification in the future.
Global underage regulation of social media is taking shape. Major European Union economies such as France and Spain are joining forces to test age verification systems based on digital identity; in the United States, TikTok, Google and Meta are facing multi-state class action lawsuits for "exacerbating the psychological crisis of teenagers." Regulators in various countries are gradually forming a consensus thatAlgorithmic recommendation mechanisms pose systemic risks to the mental health of minors.
Strict compliance requirements have had an impact on content creators. YouTube blogger Jordan Barclay, who has 23 million fans, admitted that he is considering moving his business out of Melbourne because of concerns about advertisers withdrawing investment. Critics also warn that "one-size-fits-all" bans could force young people to turn to the unregulated "online black market" and trigger new privacy leaks.