The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) hosted a media reception at the Borneo Animation & Games Festival (BACGFest) on 20 August, calling on Malaysian developers, authorities, and the general public to take steps to better safeguard children’s online safety.
Unicef Malaysia child protection specialist Selvi Supramaniam commented on the Malaysian government’s recent decision to restrict Internet usage for consumers under the age of 16. “Our position is that social media age restriction by itself is not going to solve the problem of keeping children safe. It could be one of the measures, but by itself, it is not going to stop all the harm that happens to children.”
Supramaniam argued that relying on age restrictions is not an effective solution, as children would only migrate to platforms where such restrictions were absent. Instead, she urged developers to adopt a “safety-by-design” approach by building safeguards into digital products and online platforms from the outset, similar to how safety features such as seatbelts and airbags are built into cars before they are sold.
“For example, it means having the highest privacy settings by default, ensuring that no child can be contacted by an adult, and having geolocation switched off so that no one can know where the child is. The aim of safety-by-design is to make sure the product you are releasing is safe from the beginning, so that it prevents harm.”
Game designer and University of Wollongong (UOW) Malaysia lecturer Sophie Azlan noted that parents may not be aware of the risks children face while online. “Parents don’t necessarily have the capacity to fully understand that the internet their kids are on is so different from the internet that they may have been on in their own youth,” she commented.
Azlan stated that educators can also play a role in helping to safeguard child online safety by acting as a trusted adult that children can confide in. At the same time, she recognised that developers may have limited resources to implement safety features in early stages of development.
Unicef Malaysia deputy representative Sanja Saranovic shared that children had the same rights online as they did offline, and should not be fully excluded from the benefits of the online world. “We want to be part of the solution as Unicef by helping industry and businesses include prevention measures to address online harm, rather than only responding after harm has occurred.”
Robert Gass, Unicef Representative to Malaysia stated that Unicef supports Malaysia and Sarawak’s efforts to grow the local gaming and animation industry, but that its development should be accompanied by the appropriate safeguards. He added that the organisation looks forward to working with the authorities, gaming industry and developers to better provide children with safer online experiences.
Aside from the media reception, Unicef Malaysia also hosted a workshop at the Pullman Hotel Kuching, titled “Future of Online Play: Designing With Children In Mind”. Hosted by Josianne Galea Baron, a child online protection specialist at Unicef, the workshop explored how companies and developers can integrate child rights considerations into their game and platform development.
