Meta warns social media ban may push minors to riskier platforms

A Meta director has cautioned against social media bans for teenagers, warning that such a move could be counterproductive by pushing minors towards comparatively less safe online spaces.

The technology company’s Southeast Asia public policy director, Rafael Frankel, reportedly stressed that initiatives to protect young people online should extend beyond social media to cover the wider digital ecosystem, including gaming, video, and educational platforms.

“If you ban social media for teenagers, where are they going to go? They are going to go to places like games (platforms) that are less safe (and) have far fewer controls. They are not going to just get offline,” the New Straits Times quoted him as saying today.

“They are going to go to other places that are not as well moderated, that don't have those safety aspects, where people that don't know them, (and) sometimes adults can contact them and have unsafe conversations that don't have parental control.

“How is that going to be a better result for our children?” he questioned when speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the United States-Malaysia Digital Dialogue in Kuala Lumpur today.

Meta is the parent company of social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Previously, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the cabinet was mulling raising the minimum age for social media users to 16, up from the previously proposed age of 13, in an effort to address social issues among school students.

The minister, who is also the government spokesperson, said Putrajaya is also exploring the necessity and mechanisms for requiring social media accounts to be registered using official government documents - such as MyKad, MyDigitalID, and passports.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had earlier disclosed the cabinet’s proposal to bar teenagers below the age of 16 from using smartphones to curb the rising tide of violent incidents in schools.

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