Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) whether the Government assesses that there are more advantages as opposed to disadvantages in legislating for an age limit on the use of social media access by young children and teenagers; and (b) if not, why not.
The Minister of State for Digital Development and Information (Ms Rahayu Mahzam) (for the Minister for Digital Development and Information): Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to address Question No 54, and Question No 68 filed by Leader of Opposition Mr Pritam Singh, scheduled for today’s Sitting, together with the Parliamentary Question filed by Mr Saktiandi Supaat for tomorrow’s Sitting, together?
Mr Speaker: Please go ahead.
Ms Rahayu Mahzam: The stated objective of legislating age limits for social media access is to protect children and youths from its harms. We share the same objective and will continue to study the effectiveness of mandating age limits. For example, how will the authorities assess the extent of violation? Where will the line be drawn if younger users turn to accessing unregulated platforms or services? We are engaging our Australian counterparts in social media platforms to understand their views. This will help inform our thinking on the next steps.
In the meantime, we have taken several steps to protect our children on social media. In 2023, we introduced the Code of Practice for Online Safety. It requires designated social media services to put in place measures to enhance the safety of Singapore users, including more stringent measures for children. Among other obligations, they must ensure children are not targeted to receive content that is detrimental to their physical or mental well-being. They must also have more restrictive account settings for children and provide tools for parents to manage their safety.
We have also taken decisive steps to require the implementation of age assurance methods, which have grown in availability and effectiveness, and can help to minimise children’s access to harmful online content. Such methods include age estimation using technology and age verification based on submission of official documents. Our upcoming Code of Practice for Online Safety for App Distribution Services will require designated app stores to put in place such measures to ensure that children access only apps that are appropriate for their age.
Even as we consider further steps to improve protection for children online, we are mindful that research findings on the impact of social media on children are not conclusive. While it has been linked to mental health issues, social media has also been shown to help children develop social skills and build connections with their peers.
This is why we have stepped up complementary efforts in public education to equip and educate parents and children on how to be safe online. We do this through Cyber Wellness lessons in the Ministry of Education’s (MOE’s) Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) curriculum, as well as various initiatives such as Parenting for Wellness launched in 2024 by MOE, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and the Online Safety Digital Resource Kit on the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s (IMDA’s) Digital for Life (DfL) portal. These are complemented by efforts of industry and community partners, such as Google’s Be Internet Awesome Programme and Touch Community Services’ First Device Campaign.
We are constantly looking to do better, and I welcome Members and everyone’s suggestions. Ensuring online safety is a whole of society effort and everyone can play their part.
Mr Speaker: Mr Pritam Singh.
Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister of State for replying to a variation of the question that I asked.
The Minister of State referred to the Australian example and just a few weeks ago, the Australian Internet Commissioner who is overseeing this piece of legislation, which is supposed to come into effect this year, towards end of the year I understand, was quoted as saying, “the onus to date has been falling on parents and the children themselves” and “this law is the government making a very definitive statement and saying, ‘we need to put the burden back on you, companies, just like we did with car manufacturers 60 years ago with seatbelts’… and now there is so much life-saving technology in our cars that we take for granted. Back then, car manufacturers pushed back but now they compete on safety… The law is really aimed at making normative change that the onus should fall on platforms.” This is one fragment of a larger interview she did and was reported on National Public Radio.
With regard to the Online Safety Code that the Minister of State spoke about vis-a-vis IMDA’s conversation with social media platforms, is the Government of the view that in Singapore at least, these social media companies actually respond quite proactively to the requirements that the Government puts on them with regard to Online Safety? What is the position in Singapore vis-a-vis the relationship with social media companies?
Ms Rahayu Mahzam: I thank the Member for the questions and the insight. Indeed, we are learning robustly from different countries. They are all having different experiences and some of the experiences are useful in informing us as to the actions we need to take in our space.
In Singapore, we have had a very collaborative approach that we have taken with the technology companies. We have been very stern and strict in making sure that they comply with some of the requirements that we have set forth. But we also want to ensure that this is something that can be sustainable and meaningful.
With regard to the question on whether they have been putting in the necessary safeguards, I think this is the whole point of the exercise with the annual reports because it is going to be a continuous iterative process. Based on what we have learned so far, we have put in the requirements that we think are necessary for the social media companies to put in place. We constantly engage them to make sure that they comply with these. And the reports actually provide transparency and give us that opportunity to assess whether they have done well. We are still in the midst of reviewing these and when we assess these, this is going to be the foundation of how we can then move forward in either strengthening levers or seeing what are the other measures that we can put in place to provide the necessary safeguards and protection for our children.
Ministry of Digital Development and Information
7 January 2025
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=oral-answer-3752
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 