Beyond age-based restrictions: Making the digital world safer for children — Selvi Supramaniam

JUNE 25 — A 15-year-old Iban child in Kapit uses social media to improve her English. A child with a disability finds friendship and support through an online community. A stateless teenager stays connected to information, learning and opportunities through digital platforms.

For many children, the digital world is not a luxury. In Malaysia, 94 per cent of children aged 12 to 17 use the internet, and nearly all go online daily. It is where they learn, play, express themselves, seek help and take part in society. That is why the debate about online safety must start with a simple principle: Children should not have to choose between being safe and being able to learn, connect, participate, and thrive online.

However, online harms are real and growing, and governments are right to act. The Disrupting Harm study estimated that 100,000 adolescent children in Malaysia experienced clear instances of online sexual exploitation and abuse in one year. Globally, the risks are growing as well, with the Internet Watch Foundation reporting a 26,000 per cent increase in AI-generated child sexual abuse videos in 2025 alone.

The challenge is clear: how do we protect children from sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, harmful content, privacy violations and manipulation — without cutting them off from the benefits of the digital world?

Age-based restrictions on social media platforms can be part of the response, but they are not a silver bullet. Children may find ways around restrictions, use adult accounts, or move to less visible and less regulated spaces. If verification systems rely too heavily on formal identity documents, they may also exclude children who are already invisible and vulnerable, including children without documentation.

A policy designed to protect children should not unintentionally silence them, isolate them, or push them into darker corners of the internet. Safety must strengthen children’s rights — not trade them away.

From restrictions to safety by design

Malaysia’s Online Safety Act 2025 (ONSA) and its Child Protection and Risk Mitigation Codes are important steps because they recognise that platforms must carry responsibility for the risks their services create. The Act already includes important elements of safety by design and has set a foundation for a more accountable online safety framework. The priority now is to implement this foundation well and make full use of the entry points it provides: moving from asking only whether a child is old enough to enter a platform, to asking whether the platform is safe enough for a child to use.

That means safety by design: child safety, privacy and wellbeing built into products from the start. It means stronger protections against unwanted contact, child-friendly reporting tools, better moderation, less data collection, clearer default privacy settings, and recommendation systems that do not steer children towards harmful or unsuitable content.

This is not about placing the whole burden on parents, teachers or children. Families and children need digital literacy, but no child can be expected to manage invisible algorithms, hidden data practices or business models designed to capture attention. Platform providers know how their systems work. They must be required to assess risks, reduce harms and show what they are doing.

Children and young people must help shape the solution

Children and young people are not passive users of technology. They understand the platforms they use, the pressure they feel, the harms they face and the support they need. Any serious approach to online safety must include them, especially those whose voices are too often left out.

Bringing regulators, platforms providers, civil society, parents, educators, children and youth together is how we can ensure solutions are practical and effective. When children help shape reporting tools, privacy settings, age-appropriate design, digital literacy and accountability systems, solutions are more likely to be trusted, used and improved over time.

This matters even more as artificial intelligence changes the digital landscape. AI can support learning, creativity, accessibility and child protection. But it can also create new risks, from synthetic abuse material and deepfakes to misinformation and more persuasive forms of manipulation. A society that learns to govern today’s platforms responsibly will be better prepared to manage tomorrow’s technologies.

A safer digital future is possible

The goal should not be to keep children out of digital spaces, but to make those spaces safe enough for them to learn, connect and thrive.

Malaysia has an opportunity to lead with a balanced model: protect children from abuse and exploitation; preserve their rights to information, creative expression, privacy and participation; and require technology companies to design safer digital spaces from the start – leveraging the entry points that Online Safety Act provides.

If we get this right, online safety will not only reduce harm today. It will help shape a society that can responsibly harness digital technology while keeping children’s rights, dignity and wellbeing at the centre.

For every child, a safer digital future.

* The author is a child protection specialist at Unicef 

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.