S'pore govt to introduce legislation in early 2027 to strengthen safeguards for young social media users

The Singapore government intends to introduce legislation early next year to strengthen safeguards for young social media users, the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) said on Oct. 24.

The legislation will focus on age assurance and safer platform features.

Age measures, safety platform features

Under age assurance, social media platforms will be required to implement effective age measures so that safeguards meant for young users can be applied.

These measures must be implemented in accordance to obligations under the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA), said MDDI.

As for safety platform features, the government is looking at making social media safer-by-design.

According to MDDI, this includes restrictions on inappropriate content, unwanted contact, and platform features such as autoplay and daily time limit.

In an earlier report, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo said the government was looking at getting social media platforms to turn off autoplay by default, with parents having the option of adjusting that setting.

She was speaking at an interview with the media on Aug. 28, following Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's National Day Rally (NDR) speech on Aug. 23, in which he highlighted the need to make social media safer for young children.

Stronger protections

Autoplay is a function on social media platforms where media automatically loads without the user requesting playback.

Citing a Jul. 30 report by the expert panel convened by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on the mental health impact of social media use, Teo said the panel flagged certain features as potentially exposing users to safety risks.

This includes direct messaging functions, infinite scroll and autoplay functions, or algorithmically curated feeds.

Parents and youth were found to support a graduated approach to social media access for children, the MDDI stated.

It added that they favour stronger protections for younger children and age-appropriate access with safeguards as they mature, rather than an outright ban.

MDDI had previously engaged over 2,000 parents and youth from June 2026 to August 2026 on several topics.

These included young people's social media use, online risks, and a tiered approach to social media access.

MDDI further noted that excessive use was ranked high among the top five concerns for both parents and youth.

Online Safety Assessment Report

On Oct. 24, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) also released its first Online Safety Assessment Report (OSAR) on Designated App Distribution Services (D-ADSs).

The OSAR covers the reporting period from Apr. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2025.

IMDA said in a media release that ADSs, also known as app stores, allow people to access apps and online content.

The five D-ADSs are Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Huawei AppGallery, Microsoft Store comprising five storefronts, and Samsung Galaxy Store.

IMDA added that Singapore is among the first in the world to regulate app stores for online safety and provide a comprehensive assessment report on their online safety measures.

IMDA used information from D-ADSs' annual online safety reports to IMDA, together with IMDA's own mystery shopper testing, direct testing, and operational data, to assess whether the D-ADSs' measures were present, comprehensive, and effective.

Age assurance measures, shopper testing

The report assessed the effectiveness of a few factors, including age assurance (AA) measures and enhanced protection for children.

It also assessed safety measures to remove egregious and harmful apps, safety measures to assign appropriate age ratings to apps, as well as user reporting and resolution measures.

Despite all designated app stores having baseline safety measures in place, IMDA found that a small percentage of Huawei AppGallery users were able to circumvent the AA method used.

But following IMDA's engagement, Huawei has committed to working with the authority to address the issue.

In conducting mystery shopper testing of over 7,000 apps across the designated app stores, IMDA found 65 apps containing harmful content violating the app stores' own policies and 24 apps which were wrongly age-rated.

The apps were removed or re-rated after the app stores were notified by IMDA.

Responding to media queries, an IMDA spokesperson said: "Of the 65 apps that were removed for containing harmful content, 59 contained sexual content, four contained violent content, and two contained content facilitating vice and organised crime."

"Separately, of the 24 apps that were mis-rated, 14 contained sexual content, three contained violent content, and seven contained content facilitating vice and organised crime."

Since the ADS Code was previously introduced in March 2025, IMDA noted that the five D-ADS have stepped up efforts to implement online safety measures for Singapore users.

"Following the report findings, IMDA has informed the D-ADSs on the identified areas of weaknesses. They acknowledged these areas and have either rectified them or are working towards solutions to address them.

IMDA will continue to work with the D-ADSs to ensure that these measures are effectively implemented and that identified gaps are addressed."

Online safety curriculum in pre-schools

IMDA has also been working to promote healthy digital habits across all levels of education.

Recognising that a strong foundation starts early, IMDA said it is partnering with government-supported pre-schools to introduce lessons about healthy digital habits into their curriculum.

IMDA had first piloted the online safety curriculum with over 100 Kindergarten 2 (K2) students from E-bridge pre-school, one of Singapore's Anchor Operator (AOP) Pre-Schools.

This curriculum, which will be rolled out across all E-Bridge pre-school centres islandwide, will reach nearly 3,000 K1 and K2 students across 30 centres from December 2026.

IMDA said it will continue to engage the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) and reach out to more pre-school operators in 2027.

The agency's annual Digital for Life festival will be held at VivoCity from Oct. 24 to 25 and at Heartbeat@Bedok from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1.