Social media accounts can affect children's cognitive development

KUALA LUMPUR - The ownership of social media accounts for children under the age of 13 will expose the group to dangers and information disorders thus affecting their cognitive development.

Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) Commissioner Prof Datuk Noor Aziah Mohd Awal said early exposure to media increases the risk of children being influenced by inappropriate content.

"Of course we don't want to deny children's right to access information, but information should be delivered according to age appropriateness, and on TikTok, there are many social issues and there are even influencers who share bad things.

"For children, there needs to be filtering because they are vulnerable, easily influenced and we feel there should be rules to set the age categories based on their maturity level and what information they can get," she told Bernama.

Aziah who is also a Professor of law at Faculty of Law, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia said that exposure at inappropriate ages can also affect the behavior and thinking of the young generation which has an impact on the nation's identity in the future.

Recently, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the ministry planned to hold a tour with the Ministry of Education to raise awareness and understanding about the safety of social media usage, especially TikTok, among minors.

Meanwhile, Universiti Utara Malaysia's School of Multimedia Technology and Communication dean Assoc Prof Dr Mohd Khairie Ahmad said TikTok's feature that displays short and simple videos might increase children's addiction to continue watching content on the application.

He said that although it offers settings for users to filter the accessed content, there is still no guarantee that children will be safe from being exposed to negative content and the risk of their data being manipulated.

"International digital consulting firm DataReportal revealed that Malaysians spend 38 hours a month accessing social media with TikTok being the platform with the highest usage.

"So, within that timeframe, there are two concerns, namely the content watched and the data given to the user if these children open their own accounts because these social media providers are data-driven businesses and this data is taken from each user and used for marketing, advertising purposes which they sell to other industry players," he said.

Khairie said any future drafting of digital security-related acts should consider regulating social media content for children and ensuring enforcement against service providers who misuse data.

He also emphasised the role of parents and guardians in monitoring children’s social media usage to keep them up-to-date with current technology and protect them from negative influences.

"We need to be cautious in this matter because while we want to regulate its use, at the same time, we are talking about the digitalisation of education, so there needs to be a balance," he added. - BERNAMA