/Technology

Malaysia banned social media for under-16s. Applause. Headlines. Politicians pleased with themselves. And completely useless. The government arrived late and with dirty hands Platforms with more than 8 million users in Malaysia now need age verification systems, under threat of fines up to $2.5 million. Looks good on paper. But where was this government when those platforms colonized the phones of 9-year-olds for years? The law comes after the damage is done. This is not protection. It is image management. And there is more: if the solution is "show your ID to go online," Malaysia risks creating new vulnerabilities, including fraud, data leaks, and surveillance-style data collection. The government claiming to protect children may be building a control infrastructure for the entire population. The education system failed before any social network existed Schools spent decades teaching obedience, memorization, and digital passivity. No serious media literacy. No critical thinking about algorithms, manipulation, or echo chambers. The idea behind the ban is to prevent or delay harm until young people's brains are more developed. But developed brains without education remain vulnerable. A 16-year-old who never learned to question what they see on a screen is not protected by having waited one more year. Schools could have been the antidote. They chose to be irrelevant. Parents? Accomplices by comfort This is the part nobody wants to hear. It was parents who put tablets in the hands of 3-year-olds for some peace and quiet. It was parents who bought smartphones for 10-year-olds without a single conversation about what that device actually was. It was parents who did not know, and many who did not want to know, what their children were watching, following, and consuming for hours on end. Parents will not be penalized if their children bypass the system. Of course not. Because the system knows parents are part of the problem and does not have the courage to say so. A community initiative in Ireland in 2023 convinced most residents of a town to ban smartphones for their children until secondary school. Three years later, children and parents reported being happier and better adjusted. That was not a law. It was a collective decision by adults who chose to be parents instead of domestic conflict managers. What this law really is It is a government doing the work that parents never did, through mechanisms that schools never built, for a generation that the system trained to be passive and consumptive. A blanket ban is not the answer to legitimate concerns about the harmful effects of social media on children. This issue demands a more nuanced approach. But a nuanced approach would require parents, schools, and governments to take real accountability, and that is far harder than signing a law. Malaysia took the easy way out. And everyone will pretend it was enough.