LETTER | We've declared war on drugs, smoking, cybercrime and online scams.

Yet, the most dangerous thing our children face every day sits quietly in their pockets, vibrating with notifications, glowing through the night, stealing their attention one swipe at a time. It's called social media.

Honestly, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are useful as they connect us, entertain us, even educate us.

Here's the uncomfortable question nobody wants to answer. When did we decide it was okay for platforms built to addict our children to be completely untouchable?

Around the world, governments are finally waking up to the reality of its negative effect.

Australia just banned social media for children under 16. American courts are starting to ask tough questions about whether the design of these platforms, not just what people post, is actively harming young minds.

The conversation has shifted. We're no longer arguing about free speech. We're arguing about corporate responsibility.

Malaysians are still watching from the sidelines. We have one of the highest internet penetration rates in Southeast Asia.

Our children are growing up surrounded by infinite scrolling, autoplay videos, and algorithms that know them better than their own parents do.

These aren't happy accidents but carefully engineered to keep eyes glued to screens, because attention equals advertising revenue.

When your business model depends on addiction, children become collateral damage. It's as simple as that.

Negative effects

Teachers are already seeing it in shorter attention spans. Students who can't sit through a lesson without checking their phones.

Parents who've given up trying to pry devices from their children's hands. Mental health professionals overwhelmed by teenagers suffering from anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation fueled by endless comparisons, cyberbullying, and the crushing pressure to be online 24/7.

And behind the scenes, there are the online predators. Sextortion, scamming, and targeting children who don't know any better.

What is our response so far? We hold awareness campaigns after tragedy strikes. We release new guidelines after harmful content has already gone viral. We blame parents, while letting billion-dollar tech companies walk away without accountability.

It's not working, as parents can't do this alone. They can't monitor algorithms that evolve faster than their children grow. They can't compete with engineering teams at the world's richest companies who've spent billions studying how to capture human attention.

We can't expect schools to fix a problem designed by Silicon Valley.

What we need is a Digital Child Safety Act, with strong age verification and default private accounts for minors. Restrictions on targeted advertising aimed at children. Rapid removal of harmful content, independent safety audits and real financial penalties for companies that keep failing to protect young users.

If we regulate banks to protect people's money, we can regulate tech platforms to protect children's minds.

Digital literacy

Laws alone aren't enough, as digital literacy needs to become as basic as reading and writing.

Every child should understand how algorithms influence what they see, how misinformation spreads, how predators operate online.

Parents need practical training too, not just advice to "take away the phone," but real strategies to guide their children through the digital world.

We've done this before, like seat-belt laws, anti-smoking campaigns, road safety rules. All of them were criticised at first, but all of them saved lives. Protecting our children online deserves that same national determination.

The digital economy matters, but progress can't come at the cost of our children's mental and emotional well-being. Technology should serve us, not manipulate us.

History won't ask how quickly we embraced innovation. It will ask whether we protected the most vulnerable along the way. Our children are citizens to be nurtured, not consumers to be monetised.

It's time for Malaysia to look Big Tech in the eye and say, if we are profiting from our children, we must be responsible for protecting them. There should not be excuses or waiting.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.