Kota Kinabalu: Legislation and enforcement alone will not be enough to keep children safe online as it needs parents, schools and communities to take a more active role, said Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) Keningau Director Heldora Hong.
“Digital safety is a shared responsibility that requires the active involvement of parents, schools, communities, industry and government, with parents forming the first line of defence,” said Heldora at the inaugural Child Safeguarding Conference held at the Sabah International Convention Centre, here, recently.
The conference is jointly organised by the Child Safeguarding Initiative, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and the Sabah Council of Social Services.
She urged parents to maintain open and regular conversations with their children rather than punishing them for mistakes made online, pointing out that children need guidance rather than fear when surfing the online world.
“Schools also have a role to play by embedding digital literacy and online safety education into the curriculum to help children develop the critical thinking needed to recognise misinformation, scams, cyberbullying and manipulation,” she said.
“The wider community, including civil society organisations, industry partners and community leaders, also has a part to play in reinforcing positive digital habits through community-based programmes and peer support initiatives,” she added.
She said the MCMC continues to conduct its Kempen Internet Selamat campaign, which has reached hundreds of thousands of students, parents, educators and community members nationwide, focusing on cyberbullying, online scams, privacy, digital ethics and child online protection.
“The campaign is being expanded this year into rural districts of Sabah,” she said, inviting agencies requiring talks on the programme to contact the MCMC directly.
At the government level, new laws are in place, among them is the Online Safety Act 2025 that came into effect on January 1 this year.
“The Act places a statutory duty on licensed online platforms to take proactive steps against harmful content,” she said.
“This covers child sexual abuse material, cyber harassment, online scams, pornography, content promoting self-harm, violence, hate speech and illegal substance related content,” she added.
She said building on the Act, the Child Protection Code took effect on June 1 this year, requiring licensed social media service providers to build child safety into their platforms by design.
“This includes effective age verification, stronger privacy protections for children, age-appropriate safety settings, restrictions on high-risk platform features and measures to minimise children’s exposure to harmful content and unsafe interactions,” she said.
One of the most significant changes under the Code is the minimum age for independently operating a social media account, which is now 16.
“There will no longer be social media accounts for children under the age of 16,” she said, pointing out that those under 16 are considered as still vulnerable individuals to think properly on these online risks.
Existing child users will also be required to verify their age as part of the implementation process to ensure only child users aged 16 and above are allowed to register social media accounts.
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