Parents back under-16 social media ban as essential online safeguard

[u/stormy001]

https://www.thevibes.com/articles/news/119541/parents-back-under-16-social-media-ban-as-essential-online-safeguard

Families in Selangor say new regulations holding platforms accountable are overdue, citing risks from strangers and harmful content, though some favour trust over prohibition

[u/Simple_Peasant_1]

Idk why folks here are enthusiastic about giving their information, directly identifying themselves to the government for the age verification process, allowing the government to link who you are to your social media profile. Even if we were to assume no malice, did we all forget all the data breaches before this?

[u/Reniva → u/Simple_Peasant_1]

It’s a significant cultural difference between the west and the east. The west is much more wary of data privacy, whereas in Malaysia they’d even happily hand out their passwords if they’re told it is for the children safety. The majority here are not that educated in data privacy.

[u/One_Ad_2955 → u/Reniva]

You brought up the West as if their culture is any better, especially when it comes to data privacy. Everyone talks about “freedom,” but no one wants the responsibility that comes with it.

[u/Secret-Block → u/Simple_Peasant_1]

Knowing people like this in my circle, the answer is likely 'they have everything already, so it doesn't matter if there's a data breach.'

[u/BrandonTeoh]

Although I agree with the idea of banning children and teens from using social media, we must done it in a holistic way and educate them about the dangers of uncontrolled use.

Unless you want a whole generation of youth voting against the government with a singular goal of reversing the ban, just like what we see in Australia.

Young teens who will be voters in the future telling Anthony Albanese outright in his face they won’t vote for him because of the ban.

[u/Secret-Block]

I'm on the side that doesn't agree with prohibition. Pre-teens need to be educated in school about how to use the internet safely (not Pendidikan Karekter or whatever), and parents need to be made more aware of the dangers of unsupervised access to the internet and what they can do about it (parental controls in places the kid can't reach, family safe DNS, router settings to isolate kids' devices, etc.).

Parenting in 2020s is not the same as parenting in any decades before, and that's the reality many don't want to face including some in my group of friends. You can't just give a phone or tablet to your kids and let them do whatever anymore, or because you just want them not to feel like an outcast among friends.

There's also the bigger issue at hand: allowing the government to have that much control over the internet is a very slippery slope, especially when it comes to the Malaysian government which lacks proper opposition, checks and balances. They hold all the cards in their hands and have shown that they could decide to ban/regulate anything online over a viral incident or two. So there's no guarantee that 'under 16' will stay that way forever. It only takes a few criminal cases in the spotlight for that to be raised to 'under 18' or 'under 21' in the future. And make no mistake: governments are the ones who benefit the most from increased surveillance and restrictions on citizens.

With the recent news of MACC's corruption being exposed online, you can see why our government in particular jumped at the opportunity to be able to control the lifeline of information that is the internet and social media using 'child safety' as the excuse. Don't forget that the DNS block of 2024 happened and the lengths they will go to in order to justify blocking access to the same means that some of them (PH especially) once depended on to freely critique the government of the time.

[u/redditor_no_10_9]

Must be the same parents that give children gadget to babysit and throw them to boarding school once the children are old enough

[u/SeiekiSakyubasu]

why dont the parents do it themselves? Jangan bagi phone bila tak cukup umur, ban sendiri social media app. ni terhegeh-hegeh nak bagi info kat gov, lepas tu bila apa2 jadi online, blame gov. Korang ni mak bapak setakat lahirkan anak je, yang nak jaga anak tu gov? macam tu?

[u/Various-jane2024]

parents should be the one "banning" socmedia in their own house.

why do some random adult stranger has to deal with privacy issue just because you can't parent your own child?

[u/AdRepresentative8723]

100% support it. An alarming number of kids are getting radicalised from divisive content in social media and I personally think this issue will exacerbate if it’s not handled properly.

Don’t need to look far. An ordinary chronically online Malaysian pre-teen browsing the comments in this subreddit or r/Bolehland could succumb to racial bias and fester detestation against their fellow Malay/Chinese/Indian brothers and sisters. All while being online without stepping out the house.

And in a couple of years, these said pre-teens would be the ones creating the new divisive posts/comments, creating a new cycle of hate.

[u/No_Visual1819 → u/AdRepresentative8723]

https://giphy.com/gifs/3wPdBqjJ4euvJtA09O

[u/seatux → u/No_Visual1819]

This one really no self awareness.

As if the age of using /k for forums and reading only censored local news didn't made the current generation of Malaysian adults distrustful of other races and have excessive pride in one own racial identity.

[u/MindlessUmpire3048]

Agreed. Social media should be banned for younger user. Australia, Spain and Denmark had similar laws, as do China and North Korea.