Minimum social media age of 16 a reasonable preventive step, says lawyer

KUALA LUMPUR: The proposed minimum age of 16 years for opening social media accounts is seen as a preventive measure with reasonable justification based on the principle of duty of care.

Lawyer from Messrs Aimee and Zaim Arif law firm, Zulaikha Mat Zin, said this is necessary as minors are highly exposed to cybercrime risks such as sextortion and cyberbullying.

She said Malaysia already has a comprehensive legal framework, including the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, and the Evidence Act 1950, covering digital evidence aspects.

“However, given the scale of seizures involving up to 500,000 files related to child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) under the recent Op Cyber Guardian, the main challenges now lie in enforcement and digital forensic capabilities.

“This also involves cross-border cooperation as well as the speed of digital platforms in responding to harmful content,” she said.

Zulaikha said the most critical aspect in modern cybercrime cases is ensuring the integrity and chain of custody of evidence is not compromised in accordance with the Evidence Act 1950.

She said the evidentiary elements included the process of seizure and data extraction that complied with digital forensic procedures, the use of hashing techniques to verify the authenticity of files, and metadata verification by experts.

However, she stressed that age restriction alone is not sufficient without the support of effective verification mechanisms, parental controls, and stricter enforcement of liability against platform providers.

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

As such, she proposed that improvements should include introducing stricter statutory obligations on social media platforms and expediting take-down mechanisms for CSAM content.

Zulaikha also suggested that platform owners be required to implement mandatory reporting, in addition to enforcing heavier penalties against organised cybercrime syndicates to ensure a safer digital space.

The government had previously decided that children under the age of 16 are not allowed to open or own social media accounts.

Starting June 1, social media users will be required to upload official government-issued documents for age verification following the implementation of two new codes under the Online Safety Act.

The two codes introduced by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) are the Child Protection Code (CPC) and Risk Mitigation Code (RMC).

Yesterday, Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said among the documents that could be used for age verification are identity cards and passports to prevent users under 16 from opening social media accounts. — BERNAMA

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المصدر: New Straits Times