The Comms Ministry previously said it was looking into ways of keeping kids under 13 away from social media. This includes the possibility of implementing age verification mechanisms. As an extension of this, comms minister Fahmi Fadzil has said that social media platforms operating in Malaysia have been advices to implement electronic know-your-customer (eKYC) verification.
These are to be done using government issued documents too, such as the MyKad, passport or MyDigital ID. He said that this would ensure that user identities are fully verified to both reduce online fraud and also prevent children under 13 from social media platforms.
According to The Edge, Fahmi says “we found that platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok and others do not yet have a truly capable eKYC system, so we ahve asked them to implement the eKYC process using official government issued documents”. He adds that it is only being encouraged for now, but it will become mandatory once the Online Safety Act comes into effect.
On a related note, the comms ministry, via the MCMC, will be coordinating a meeting between a number of government bodies with Meta and TikTok in Singapore. This will happen within the next two weeks, with issues such as the sale of prohibited items showing up on social media platforms, as well as the aforementioned eKYC implementation.
(Source: The Edge)
