Malaysian parents back curbs on ‘brain rot’ excess of social media

Malaysian parents have welcomed a plan to bar children from having social media accounts, but are less enthused by a proposal to push state-sanctioned family content to curb consumption of damaging online material.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil on Tuesday warned parents against an overreliance on mobile devices serving as “digital nannies” to keep their children occupied, saying he had personally come across children who had their own TikTok accounts despite being below the minimum age limit of 13 set by such social media platforms.

The government said it was studying the possibility of enforcing a ban on children below the age of 13 from having social media accounts to protect them from harmful “brain rot” – a term for repetitive short-form content that has been blamed for behavioural changes in young people.

The plan could also include increasing the volume of locally produced family-friendly content approved by the government, as well as digital literacy modules for children aged 13 and older to help them navigate the deluge of information available online, Fahmi told parliament.

Parents who spoke to This Week in Asia said barring young children from having their own social media accounts was a good move, but argued that it was still a struggle to keep tabs on their children’s digital consumption habits.