Can Big Tech stem 'growing political momentum' of social media ban for kids?

analysis Asia

Can Big Tech stem ‘growing political momentum’ of social media ban for kids?

When it comes to social media bans, governments are willing to absorb criticism on feasibility, privacy and civil liberties, experts tell CNA.

KUALA LUMPUR: As countries around the world mull social media bans for those under 16, tech firms have touted their own child safety features and warned of unintended effects in their bid to push back against more regulation.

But experts say that ship has sailed for Big Tech, noting that internet regulators seem more determined than ever to push through the bans despite what platforms say or do.

With strong public support for intervention against the threat of online harms especially against children, governments are willing to absorb criticism on feasibility, privacy and civil liberties, rather than be accused of inaction, the analysts add.

While tech firms can highlight how they are already protecting children on their respective platforms, the debate has moved beyond safety tools to whether they can demonstrate systemic and enforceable measures, the experts tell CNA.

“Social media platforms can (roll out features that may) reduce some regulatory pressure, but they are unlikely to reverse the current policy momentum through product tweaks alone,” said Galvin Lee, a marketing and economics lecturer at Taylor’s College in Malaysia.

The momentum in the region is palpable.

On Dec 10 last year, Australia became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access to platforms including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook.

Since the landmark ban, regulators across Southeast Asia, Europe, in Brazil and in a handful of states in the United States are moving to study or emulate it.

Southeast Asian countries’ stance

On Mar 11, Indonesia acknowledged that its plan to ban social media for under-16s from Mar 28 was a “major task” given the sheer number of children in the country, but insisted it was necessary to safeguard them in the digital space.

Malaysia also plans to launch a ban this year. The government is reviewing age-restriction mechanisms and has started a regulatory sandbox with tech firms to introduce a minimum age limit for new account registrations.

In January, Singapore said it was “actively engaging” its Australian counterparts in assessing the effectiveness of social media age assurance measures there, as some parents have issued calls for a similar ban.

In the Philippines, a lawmaker has filed a Bill that aims to ban minors under 16 from social media, arguing that the “burden of responsibility” should be on social media platforms rather than users or their parents, local newspaper Inquirer reported on Mar 10.

In Thailand, 87 per cent of respondents surveyed believe children under 14 should not be allowed to use social media, the highest percentage among 30 countries polled globally, according to a Bangkok Post report published in January, which quoted the Ipsos Education Monitor 2025.

Vietnam’s ruling party in January issued a directive mandating identity and age authentication for all social media users, although this did not extend to a ban for minors. Several local news outlets, however, have covered the debate on whether children under 16 should be allowed on social media.

Tech firms have argued that such bans would be tough to implement, deprive young people of social contact, and drive them to darker corners of the internet that are poorly monitored.

After Australia’s lawmakers voted in favour of the ban in December 2024, a Meta spokesperson said it was “concerned about the process which rushed the legislation”, highlighting a “lack of evidence” underpinning it.

Meanwhile, social video platform TikTok said then that it was “important that the (Australian) government works closely with (the) industry to fix issues created by this rushed process”.

Snap, the owner of photo-sharing app Snapchat, cited “many unanswered questions about how the law will be implemented in practice”, and said it will work with authorities to develop an approach that balances safety, privacy and practicality.

Last Tuesday (Mar 10), Meta held a press briefing in Kuala Lumpur to promote its teen accounts feature for users aged 13 to 17, which has been gradually rolled out since 2024 and is designed to limit who can contact the teens and the content they see on the app. It could not say when the feature was first introduced in the Malaysian market.

These accounts will be private by default, and they will not be able to get new message requests from users they are not connected with. Teens aged 13 to 15 will need parental permission to change these settings.

Teen accounts are also prohibited from going live, and will automatically filter out content that could be considered nudity sent in messages.

Philip Chua, Meta’s APAC director of public policy for products, said there was a need to balance the potential benefits and harms of being connected on social media.

“The issue here with some of the ban proposals that we’ve been seeing around the world, including Australia, is that ultimately that results in a lot of unintended consequences,” he said.

These include migration to unregulated platforms, a surge in circumvention techniques like the use of virtual private networks (VPN), and the creation of a regulatory gap that does not reflect where teens actually spend time online, he added.

But Shafizan Mohamed, a communications lecturer at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), said regulators looked at “more than just talking or having features”.

“Even if Big Tech is being very serious in improving their safety features, coming up with new alternatives or initiatives, it would not make governments reconsider under-16 restrictions,” she told CNA.

“There is a bigger political momentum not just here in our part of the world, but also in Europe for example, where governments are shifting their positions from trusting pla