KUALA LUMPUR: Telecommunication companies will be providing parental control tools soon to curb social media use by children under 12, says Fahmi Fadzil.
The Communications Minister said this was necessary as the minimum age requirement to create accounts on media platforms is insufficient to prevent children from using them.
"This is based on my own experience when I met students in my constituency during the Back To School programmes.
"When I ask who is on social media, almost 90% of children between Standard One and Six say they have TikTok accounts," he said when replying to a question raised by Kamal Ashaari (PN-Kuala Krau) in Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (March 13).
Kamal asked what was being done to curb the use of social media platforms by those below 15 to prevent them from following unhealthy trends.
Fahmi said that X, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp require users to be at least 13 years old, while Telegram has set its age limit to 16.
"Although there are such guidelines, they are insufficient.
"The ministry, through the Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), is working with five service providers, namely CelcomDigi, Maxis, U Mobile, Telekom Malaysia and Time dotCom, to introduce parental control tools," he said.
He said this would allow parents to monitor, filter and limit their children's use of social media platforms.
He added that parents can still use any other parental control tools available.
Fahmi also said that the Cabinet had set up a working committee last month to look into new laws related to online and social media.
Meanwhile, in response to a question from Onn Abu Bakar (PH-Batu Pahat), Fahmi said that the government has no plans to ban any social media platforms here.
Fahmi acknowledged that India had banned TikTok about five years ago while only Douyin is allowed in China. The United States government is currently looking to ban TikTok.
"These countries have their own approaches and different criteria for their decisions," he said.
He added that the Malaysian government has a different approach, which is to work closely with social media platform providers and to consider new laws to keep up with current needs.
