Protecting children online isn’t mass surveillance

2026-03-07 - 02:23

Last year, the nation was shaken by the discovery of over 880,000 digital files containing child sexual abuse material and adult pornography during a joint operation by the police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. It led to the arrest of 31 suspects—shockingly, some as young as 12. This prompted the government to make online child sexual exploitation a top priority to combat. The Online Safety Act came into force on Jan 1, including provisions such as enforcing a minimum age of 16 for social media use, which will be implemented soon. The measure aims to protect children and adolescents from exploitation and exposure to inappropriate online content. Similar initiatives have been adopted internationally. Australia became the first country to prohibit those under 16 from accessing social media, encouraging other nations to follow suit. Germany’s ruling party has expressed support for social media bans, French president Emmanuel Macron has called for a ban on children under 15, and in the United Kingdom, prime minister Keir Starmer is pushing for comprehensive social media restrictions. Greece, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan have also implemented online identity verification laws. While many see these moves as positive, some dissent. As American journalist Taylor Lorenz wrote in the UK newspaper The Guardian on March 2, such bans on social media use, applied to large portions of the population, pave the way for mass surveillance and widespread censorship — contributing to what she calls a “global free speech recession”. Lorenz questioned the mechanisms for verifying users’ ages on social media, warning that they could lead to breaches of personal data. In protecting children in the digital space, Malaysia must avoid the flawed logic of equating safety with mass surveillance. This narrative needs correction: child safety and mass surveillance are not the same, and conflating the two only muddies policy discussions that should be grounded in facts. In Malaysia, concern over online child safety is not abstract. Cases of sexual crimes against children, digital exploitation, and grooming have been repeatedly reported. Parents and educators are increasingly aware that online risks go beyond content to include interactions. Children’s rights are not only about freedom of expression or access to information — they also include the right to protection from harm. This principle is in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognises the state’s responsibility to provide special protections for minors, including in digital environments. Some critics argue there is no strong evidence linking social media to a mental health crisis among adolescents. But focusing solely on mental health statistics narrows the real scope of the problem. Children face risks beyond depression or anxiety, such as early exposure to pornography, sexual predators, online scams, and psychological manipulation. Another frequently raised concern is age verification, often associated with biometrics and sensitive data collection, as if it were the only option. In reality, technology and public policy offer multiple approaches, including third-party verification. In Malaysia, the government is implementing a regulatory sandbox with social media platforms to enforce a 16-year age limit for new account registration. It also requires accounts for users under 16 to be managed by parents, emphasising parental responsibility rather than leaving oversight solely to authorities. “Devices are not caregivers. Parents have responsibilities too,” said communications minister Fahmi Fadzil. Ultimately, the key question is not whether child safety matters — it does — but whether we are willing to address it honestly and reasonably. Rejecting all forms of intervention in the name of absolute freedom leaves children exposed to increasingly complex risks. Protecting children in the digital space is a shared responsibility. It can be achieved without turning society into a surveillance state, as long as policies are carefully designed, transparent, and grounded in balanced human rights principles. Child safety and public freedom are not at odds if we craft policies wisely. The writer is the editor of FMT’s Malay News Desk. The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.