Trend Spotlight: The Focus on Online Safety

Online safety moved up the policy agenda in 2025, transitioning into a new phase of stricter compliance in some jurisdictions,with a particular focus on protecting children and minors online. While national approaches differ, we can see the broader regulatory trajectory unfolding over time.

Australia - The First Move

Australia’s under-16 social media ban, implemented in December 2025, marked a global first. Beyond its immediate domestic impact, the move prompted regional policy conversations - signalling the move to prioritise child safety over platform flexibility, placing even more responsibilities on platforms.

Diverging paths, common goals

Several other APAC governments have also updated their respective regulatory responses, adopting different approaches to address similar concerns.

Malaysia’s Online Safety Act, effective 1 January 2026, raises the minimum age for social media access to 16 and introduces mandatory age-assurance requirements. Indonesia, meanwhile, is preparing to enforce age-based access restrictions and child-protection safeguards, with measures expected to take effect from 1 March 2026 under its PP TUNAS framework.

Age-based restrictions, however, are not the only approach emerging in the region. Singapore recently passed the Online Safety Relief & Accountability Bill, which will establish an Online Safety Commission in 2026 and introduces statutory torts allowing victims of online harms to seek legal redress. The legislation also places explicit duties on platforms in relation to harmful content and mandates financial penalties for failure to comply with takedown requirements.

A snapshot of APAC approaches

While these regulatory models differ in design and enforcement mechanisms, they share a common objective: embedding online safety expectations into enforceable law.

Country	Access Rule	Assurance Method	Enforcement
Australia	Statutory prohibition for under-16s	Platform gatekeeping	Duty enforced on social media platforms.
Malaysia	Ban on social media access for under-16s	Identity-backed age assurance via official ID	Financial penalties on companies that do not provide age-assurance measures or ignore regulator take-down notices
Indonesia	Mandatory access controls + child safeguards	Operator-level protections (PP TUNAS)	Compliance is implemented via ministerial subsidiary regulations
Singapore	Duties on harmful content	To be defined by regulator in 2026	Financial penalties on the platforms that fail to comply with take-down orders

What this means for platforms

Increasingly, platforms are facing higher and more explicit compliance expectations — spanning age verification, access controls, content moderation obligations, regulatory reporting, and enforcement readiness.

Online safety is increasingly a structural compliance requirement, with implications for product design, governance, data practices, and regional operations that platforms have to take into consideration.

Looking ahead

The shift toward mandatory online safety requirements is likely to continue, driven by the political salience of child protection and sustained public pressure for action (especially in light of rapidly developing challenges brought about by technological advancements such as AI).  

The next phase of online safety governance will hinge not only on whether platforms are regulated, but how those frameworks are designed and implemented. The challenge ahead is for governments and platforms to engage in dialogues to co-design and deliver real protection outcomes without overreaching — with policies that avoid one-size-fits-all requirements across platforms and content types, while standing firm on clear red lines against abusive usage. 

Moving forward, striking a careful balance between child safety, privacy, proportionality, and trust in the digital ecosystem will be a challenging but critical process in 2026.

Good policy protects users — and preserves trust in the digital foundations it relies on.