Singapore to Legislate Mandatory Social Media Safeguards for Teenagers

Singapore plans to introduce legislation early next year to require social media platforms to implement stronger safeguards for teenage users. Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo stated that the government is considering mandatory daily time limits to combat features that fuel addiction, such as infinite scroll and autoplay. Platforms that are unable or unwilling to introduce these safeguards may be required to raise their minimum access age from 13 to 18. The proposed measures also aim to protect teens from stranger danger by restricting direct messages from unknown users. Minister Teo noted that an expert panel from the Ministry of Health found that one in three users aged 15 to 17 spend more than three hours a day on social media, suggesting that three hours is too long. While the government is referencing a US settlement with Meta that includes a two hour daily limit, Singapore may differ in implementation; for example, the government wants autoplay to be off by default. These upcoming changes follow a National Day Rally speech by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who argued that platform self regulation and self declaration of age are not sufficient. To enforce these rules, the government will utilize age assurance methods including age estimation, age inference, and age verification against official records. These efforts build upon existing frameworks such as the Online Safety Commission and the Code of Practice for Online Safety, which already requires designated platforms like TikTok, Meta, and X to tackle harmful content.