Social media users in Malaysia will have to verify their age with government-issued documents from June 1, as the country moves to enforce new online safety rules aimed at keeping children under 16 off major platforms.
Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said users must upload identity cards, passports or other official documents to complete the process. Speaking on Friday, May 22, at the Safe Internet Campaign Community Carnival in Kuching, she said self-declared ages would not be enough. “If it is merely self-declared, anyone can simply click and claim they are above 18 years old,” she said.
The requirement comes after the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission changed the Online Safety Act 2025 and put in place the Child Protection Code and the Risk Mitigation Code. Under those codes, social media platforms must implement age verification for accounts on services with more than eight million users in Malaysia, and children under 16 are barred from opening or owning such accounts.
Teo said the commission is still discussing how much time existing users should get to comply after talks with TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. “For existing accounts that have yet to complete age verification, MCMC is still discussing a reasonable timeframe after engaging with the involved social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook and Instagram,” she said. Accounts that fail to complete verification may be closed, and platforms may also need to use artificial intelligence to help ensure users are at least 16.
The new rules were published after engagement sessions with industry players, civil society organisations and other stakeholders since the beginning of this year. They also land at a time when Malaysia is trying to blunt the damage from online fraud: from January to April this year, 23,367 scam cases were reported nationwide, with losses of RM680.3mil. From January 2025 until April 30, more than 11,000 Safe Internet Campaign programmes were carried out across the country, drawing over 1.8 million participants.
The policy leaves little room for ambiguity. Malaysia has decided that age checks can no longer be a box-ticking exercise, and platforms now face a practical test: prove a user is old enough, or risk shutting the account down.
