MDDI's Response to PQ on Strengthening Child Social Media Safeguards Against Online Grooming of Minors and Measures Restricting Harmful Accounts

Parliament Sitting on 8 September 2026

Question for Written Answer

41. Mr Sharael Taha asked the Minister for Digital Development and Information (a) when the Government expects to complete its review of social media safeguards for children; and (b) in light of recent cases involving online grooming of minors, whether the review will include stronger safeguards against unsolicited adult-child interactions and measures to identify and restrict potentially harmful accounts.

Answer

My response will cover the question raised by Mr Sharael Taha in today's Order Paper, as well as questions by Ms Cassandra Lee and Ms Charlene Chen filed for subsequent sittings relating to the Government’s proposed measures to enhance safeguards for children on social media platforms.

Singapore’s preferred approach is to provide tiered access to social media based on age. We have been engaging the designated social media services – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X and HardwareZone – on our approach.

Firstly, we will require designated social media services to put in place age assurance measures to ensure children below 13 years of age cannot create or maintain social media accounts. Similar to our approach to requiring age assurance for designated app stores, we will allow designated social media services to propose their preferred methods, and to implement them after we have assessed these methods to be robust and effective. Thereafter, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will regularly test their effectiveness.

Secondly, for children between 13 and 17, we will require these services to put in place stronger safeguards. This applies to features which may expose children to safety risks, such as direct messaging from strangers, or potentially addictive features, such as autoplay. We are also considering a daily default time limit for each service.

These measures are in line with the recommendations of the Ministry of Health’s Expert Panel on the Mental Health Impact of Social Media Use, which the Ministry of Digital Development and Information and IMDA have taken into consideration when designing the tiered access approach.

The Government recognises that many parents want a say in deciding what is appropriate for their child on social media. We aim to facilitate parents’ involvement by letting them adjust the default settings for the proposed safeguards.

To support the implementation of these safeguards, we plan to introduce legislative amendments next year. For platforms that are unable or unwilling to introduce these enhanced safeguards for young users, the minimum user age for these platforms may be raised to 18.

We will also monitor whether it is necessary to extend these safeguards to other platforms, especially those which are already or have become more popular with young users.