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‘Where do we go now?’: Malaysia’s under-16 social media ban leaves teens detached and displaced
(www.straitstimes.com)
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
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It's like being forced to quit drugs cold turkey, and that sucks. There's been enough whistleblowers telling us social media is being shaped to be as addicting and harmful as possible and to get kids hooked as young as possible.
I was born a generation or maybe two now? above these kids. I got to experience the early Internet and not having MySpace weaponized against me. So from that perspective I'm at I'm happy for them. It's been consistently hard to avoid social media and the backlash of friends. I'll be excluded from a group event or miss important information every so often and then get told. "Well if you were on Facebook you would've known."
These kids will be alright once they discover what avenues are available to them for communication.
The thing you posted this on is also social media.
At least according to the article, Malaysia's ban is actually limited to big tech, making it slightly less bad than most Internet regulations that are just regulatory capture for big tech.
Has anyone tried to tell Malaysian teens about the fediverse and how they can still be here as much as they want, I wonder? 😜