Social Media Platform Operators Could Face Court Action for Ignoring Child Protection, Risk Mitigation Codes
KUALA LUMPUR: All social media platform operators have been given a period of several months to review and update their respective operating systems to comply with the Child Protection Code (CPC) and the Risk Mitigation Code (RMC).
Without specifying a fixed period, Communications Minister, Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil, said that all social media platform operators have been given that period because the two codes published by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) are important to ensure that the digital space does not become a hotbed for various crimes, including online scams, online gambling and cyberbullying.
He stressed that once both codes are fully operational, platform operators who fail to comply could face court action along with fines at a very high rate.
“MCMC is currently in Singapore to hold discussions with social media platform operators, including YouTube, to encourage the adoption of the CPC and RMC.
“Previously, they asked for some time due to operational factors and to fully understand the codes. Therefore, we are giving them an adjustment period of several months to implement them,” he said.
He said this to the media after officiating the 2026 Safe Internet Parent-Teacher Association (PIBG) Convention for the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur here.
Fahmi said that the government is also tightening the mechanism for opening social media accounts for individuals under the age of 16 through the age verification requirement via the eKYC (Electronic Know Your Customer) system.
Meanwhile, he raised critical issues regarding the actions of some platforms, such as TikTok, which have reduced human moderator staff and handed over content moderation duties entirely to artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
He explained that AI has limitations in understanding the nuances of local languages and the depth of sentence context, particularly in the languages of certain communities such as Tamil, thus causing cyberbullying incidents to continue to be widespread.
“I have conveyed my views to TikTok that the issue of language moderation cannot be handed over entirely to AI. AI is unable to understand the nuances of certain sentence usage, especially those intended to bully or victimise others.
“Unfortunately, TikTok has taken action to reduce human moderators and is placing more focus on AI,” he said.
Commenting on the Safe Internet Campaign, Fahmi emphasised the important role of parents and PIBG in monitoring their children’s use of devices and social media accounts.
He reminded parents to activate parental controls on devices and to prevent children under 16 from opening personal social media accounts without supervision, to prevent them from becoming targets of cybercriminals.
Berita Harian