School Crimes Prompt Wake-Up Call Over Phone Use By Children

By Sakini Mohd Said

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 (Bernama) -- The recent spate of school crimes, culminating in the fatal stabbing of a teenage girl by her schoolmate, has become a sobering wake-up call for Malaysia to urgently reconsider raising the minimum age for smartphone and social media use to 16.

Far from being isolated incidents, the disturbing surge of violence among schoolchildren, occurring at an age when they should be most protected and within institutions meant to serve as safe havens, has rattled parents and communities nationwide.

This growing pattern underscores that the urgency for action can no longer be deferred, as unmonitored digital exposure has increasingly been linked to disciplinary problems, the normalisation of violence, cyberbullying and a growing mental health crisis among youths.

At its meeting on Oct 17, the Cabinet proposed three measures to address safety issues in schools, including banning smartphone use among students aged 16 and below to curb disciplinary problems and reduce the influence of social media and online games often linked to bullying and crime.

While many academics and parents have welcomed the proposal, public policy analyst Dr Tricia Yeoh stressed that both the suggested ban and the move to raise the minimum age for social media use to 16 must be examined more thoroughly, particularly regarding user privacy.

“I believe overall that we should be raising the Internet adulthood age to 16, which means that children should not be permitted to access everything available on the Internet under that age because there are many dark holes online that are dangerous for them to access, including hardcore pornography.

“The government's move to raise the minimum social media age to 16 is the right move, but it has to be done in a way that does not invade users’ privacy. I understand that there is a way to ban social media for under-16s that does not involve electronic Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) and that is the right direction,” she told Bernama. 

Yeoh, who is also an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, said that instead of eKYC, she understood from experts that one possible method to prevent children from creating their own social media accounts is the use of ‘zero-knowledge proof’, which are already well-established in the industry. 

She said although more research is needed in Malaysia to determine whether there are linkages between smartphone use and mental illness or depression, studies in the United States (US) by social psychologist Professor Jonathan Haidt could serve as a reference.

“In his (Haidt) book, The Anxious Generation, he attributes the sharp increases in depression and anxiety among adolescent boys and girls between 2010 and 2020 to the widespread adoption of the smartphone.

“In Haidt’s research, amongst the harms that smartphones created in the US and by extension, easy access to either social media or other digital platforms were social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation and addiction,” she said. 

Yeoh added that while the proposed ban is a necessary first step, the wider debate over smartphone restrictions and age limits for social media reflects a larger truth, that protecting children in the digital era cannot rest on parents alone.

She emphasised that meaningful change will require coordinated action across government, industry, schools, and families, ensuring that the protection of the young is reinforced by accountability, education and shared responsibility.

“If parents, educators, policymakers and technology companies each take responsibility for their part, we can create healthier social and digital norms and overall safer environments for our young people,” she said.

While awaiting the implementation of the proposed ban, Yeoh stressed the need for a nationwide “parents’ pact” to withhold smartphones from children until 16 and encouraged the creation of “landline pods” for them to communicate with friends.

“The government can set guidelines for parents to follow, but it is up to parents to make the final decision. The guideline can certainly include a restriction on smartphones below the age of 16.

“If parents can collectively agree not to provide smartphones to their children under 16, then this relieves the pressure for them since the children won’t have the peer pressure to receive them too. But this needs collective community action - may last week’s tragedy be a wake-up call for all members of society to do their part,” said Yeoh. 

Meanwhile, in urging the government to examine the matter more closely, Dr Chua Sook Ning, clinical psychologist and founder of not-for-profit mental health organisation Relate Malaysia, said social media from children under 16 could no longer be delayed, noting that previous studies have shown a link between problematic social media use and the increased risk of poor mental health.

Chua said parents actually need help, such as training programmes to equip parents with the right strategies related to rules of using digital devices, setting up parental controls and content filters and communicating with children early about their digital use.

-- BERNAMA