Government weighs ban on children below the age of 13 from having social media accounts to protect them from harmful content

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil on Tuesday warned parents against an overreliance on mobile devices to serve as “digital nannies” to keep their children occupied, saying he had personally come across children who had their own TikTok accounts despite being below the minimum age limit of 13 set by social media platforms.

The government said it was studying the possibility of enforcing a ban on children below the age of 13 from having social media accounts to protect them from harmful content such as “brain rot” – repetitive short-form entertainment that has been blamed for behavioural changes in young people.

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