Establishing Frameworks for Under-18 Social Media Access and Design Feature Safeguards

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information on under-18 access to social media (a) what must platforms do to retain access for children; (b) who will assess this; (c) what is the timeline before any access restrictions take effect; and (d) whether this framework will address platform design features, such as autoplay, direct messaging and infinite scroll, in addition to content-based harms.

Singapore is studying a tiered access approach to social media for children, where under-13 users are restricted from accessing designated social media services (DSMSs). For users aged between 13 and 18, the DSMSs will be required to provide an age-appropriate experience, which could include appropriate content, interactions and platform features. Platforms that cannot comply with our requirements may be restricted from providing their services to users aged between 13 and 18.

Consultations with the public and DSMSs are ongoing. We will provide more details in due course.