Malaysia says creative content push must come with child online safety

Malaysia wants to grow its digital creative economy, but the minister in charge says that ambition must be paired with firm protection for children online. Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil set out the position in Kuala Lumpur on 14 October 2026, speaking to reporters after the Creators for Impact 2026 programme.

"We want to encourage the production of creative content, including on platforms such as YouTube. However, our challenge is to prevent crimes such as online child sexual exploitation and grooming," he said. "Our priority is to prevent children from using these platforms to communicate with adults who may seek to exploit them."

Concern about how children use video and social platforms reaches well beyond Malaysia, and it is increasingly being tested in court. A growing number of legal cases over social media harm to children are examining whether platforms did enough to protect young users, and families in the UK can read how a social media harm claim works.

The minister linked the safety message to the government's wider plan to strengthen the creative economy through quality and responsible digital content. He said the Communications Ministry and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) continue to back content production on digital platforms, and that the Orange Economy Council, the body set up to oversee creative economy policy and review programmes, also supports that work.

Creators for Impact 2026, organised by Google, teaches content creators production techniques alongside ways to weave online safety messages into what they make. In his speech at the event, Fahmi said creators could do more to promote responsible internet use among young people, and that closer cooperation between government, technology companies and creators was needed so that digital safety messages actually reach them.

The minister's remarks came the same year as international scrutiny of how large platforms treat under-18s. In July 2026 the European Commission issued preliminary findings that TikTok's accounts for minors do not meet the safety standards of the Digital Services Act, its EU law for online services, because teenagers could set accounts to public.

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