The Malaysian government has announced that new rules restricting the use of social networks by individuals under 16 years of age will come into force on June 1.
Modern.az reports that the “Engadget” platform has published information about this. According to the new requirements, users under 16 years of age will not be allowed to open social media accounts in the country.
According to the rules, services such as Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta platforms, as well as TikTok and YouTube, will have to implement age verification systems. New users will have to verify their age during registration, and existing users will have to go through a verification process later. The Malaysian government stated that this step aims to protect children from harmful content, dangerous forms of communication, and platform functions that are not appropriate for their age.
The new system will work with an “outcome-based” approach. This means that platforms can choose the technology to be used for age verification themselves. The verification process must use identification methods based on official government documents from Malaysia or other countries. According to the rules, new users who do not pass age verification will be blocked from creating an account, and existing users will have their access to platforms restricted.
