‘Social media age limit rooted in duty of care’

The proposed 16 years minimum age for opening social media accounts is a preventive measure rooted in the principle of duty of care.

Zulaikha Mat Zin of the Messrs Aimee and Zaim Arif law firm said minors were highly exposed to cybercrime, including sextortion and cyberbullying.

She said Malaysia had a comprehensive legal framework, including the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and Evidence Act 1950 that includes digital evidence.

“However, following Op Cyber Guardian, which has uncovered more than 500,000 child sexual abuse material (CSAM) files, the key challenges now are enforcement and digital forensic capabilities.”

Zulaikha said preserving the integrity and chain of custody of evidence was crucial in cybercrime investigations.

She added that this involved proper seizure and data extraction procedures, the use of hashing techniques to verify file authenticity, and expert metadata verification.

However, she said age restrictions alone were insufficient without effective verification systems, parental controls and stricter accountability for platforms.

“Malaysia’s legal framework on platform liability is still evolving and is not as aggressive as those in the European Union or Australia.”

She proposed stricter statutory obligations for social media platforms, faster takedown mechanisms for CSAM content, mandatory reporting requirements and heavier penalties for members of cybercrime syndicates.

The government had earlier decided that children under 16 years old would not be allowed to open or own social media accounts.

Under two new codes introduced through the Online Safety Act, Malaysians seeking to create social media accounts from June 1 must first upload government-issued documents for age verification.

© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd

المصدر: New Straits Times