Malaysia Was Confident in Its Social Media Ban, but Kids Are Still on TikTok

Fathin Farhana was expecting respite from the daily arguments she has with her preteen sons about putting away their phones. Both gave a fake age to sign up for TikTok, she said, and spend too much time watching livestreams of the game Mobile Legends or playing games themselves.

Her country, Malaysia, had barred children under 16 from social media starting on June 1, and Ms. Fathin was hoping the rule would forcibly reduce the boys’ screen time.

But months later, that has not been the case.

“It is the best thing ever that I can still log on to TikTok,” said Kayden Malik, 12, Ms. Fathin’s older son. “It cures my boredom every day.”

Malaysia is not alone in struggling to implement and enforce restrictions on social media use. But the authorities there had suggested the rollout would be smoother than in countries like Australia and Indonesia, because they had told companies to rely on government-issued do***ents like identity cards to verify users’ ages. Now they have suggested that the social media companies are wary of storing government data.

The ban applies to platforms with more than 8 million users in Malaysia, which are TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The platforms either declined to comment or did not address why they had not established new age-verification systems. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has argued social media bans for children could be counterproductive and push them toward less safe online spaces. Google, which owns YouTube, said it was committed to working with the Malaysian authorities.

For now, nothing has changed for users.

“This delay for the ban is not good,” said Ms. Fathin, whose younger son is 10. “Children’s mental health is being affected by watching TikTok for hours.”

The authorities have asked social media companies to explain their failure to comply with the ban and detail the measures they have taken to implement age verification mechanisms, the Ministry of Communications said in a statement last week. They now have until January 2027 to comply with the ban, according to Kamaruddin Abdul Rani, the under secretary of the control and compliance division of the ministry.

Malaysia announced its plan last November. It echoed Australia’s restrictions, instituted late last year, though that country had left the method of age verification for the social media companies to decide.

Failure to comply with the ban can lead to fines of up to 10 million ringgit, or about $2.4 million.

Social media platforms are under intense scrutiny in Malaysia, which has about 8 million children under 16. The country has seen a recent string of stabbing cases involving schoolchildren that both officials and parents have blamed on social media, without providing evidence.

Last month, a 15-year-old girl was stabbed multiple times at a school in Banting, a town about 35 miles southwest of Kuala Lumpur, the capital. The local police said that social media may have influenced the attacker, a fellow student, but declined to give specifics because the investigation was ongoing.

Suhaila Ariff, who has two daughters, said she believes access to violent and ***ual content on social media is contributing to a rise in criminal activity among younger teenagers in schools.

“Social media has no benefit for our children,” said Ms. Suhaila, whose 12-year-old daughter fudged her age to sign up for TikTok and Instagram accounts. “Children are not focused on studies and sports activities, because they spend hours watching videos online on these platforms.”

The Malaysian authorities had blockumed that verifying users’ ages would be straightforward. In May, Fahmi Fadzil, the communications minister, said that there were no foreseeable issues with using government do***ents, as other sectors in the country, such as e-wallet services, also confirm users’ ages with identification cards.

Some social media companies and civil society groups have voiced concerns about the safety of personal data.

“In their view, this would create concentrated repositories of sensitive data and materially heighten exposure to privacy breaches and cybersecurity incidents,” according to a report issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, the regulator tasked with enforcing the ban.

The authorities have tried to address these concerns. Eneng Faridah Iskandar, deputy managing director for development at the M.C.M.C., said that to protect users’ privacy, companies had been told they must only collect the data needed to verify age and limit storage of that information.

Australia, the first country in the world to ban social media accounts for children under 16, took a different tack, with platforms ordered to come up with age verification systems, like facial blockysis. This is largely because Australian law states that companies cannot ask users to provide government-issued do***ents to prove their age because of privacy concerns. But many children easily skirted or tricked these systems.

In Malaysia, social media companies continue to push for the Australian model, said Mr. Kamaruddin, the compliance official. They appear to have about four months to convince the authorities or implement age-verification systems that use government IDs.