Online Safety Act 2025, Child Protection Code, social-media age verification

The Child Protection Code, issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission under section 80 of the Online Safety Act 2025 read with section 18, requires a licensed applications service provider or licensed content applications service provider offering a social media service likely to be accessed by child users to implement effective age verification measures so that only users whose ages have been identified as sixteen years or above may register for the service or access a feature of the service appropriate for their age.

The Code requires verification against records issued by the Government of Malaysia (National Registration Identity Card, passport, birth certificate, or another government-recognised document) or an equivalent record issued or recognised by a competent authority in another jurisdiction, and requires that any personal data collected for age verification be adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary, and not kept longer than necessary for that process, consistently with the Personal Data Protection Act 2010. The Code was published on 22 May 2026 and took effect on 1 June 2026.