IMDA: Social media platforms should do more to protect children from harmful content

Social media platforms need to improve the effectiveness of their measures in protecting children from harmful and age-inappropriate content. This is according to the Infocomm Media Development Authority's (IMDA) inaugural "Online safety assessment report".

Released on Monday (17 February), the report assesses the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the online safety measures implemented by social media services to mitigate risks from harmful content, and highlights areas for improvement. The report aims to allow users, including parents, to make informed decisons for themselves and their children about the risks and available safety measures on the various services.

The study assessed how well social media services, such as Facebook, HardwareZone, Instagram, TikTok, X and Youtube, protect their users based on the "Code of practice for online safety".

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Under the code, the social media platforms are required to execute measures to minimise users' access to harmful content, give users effective and easy-to-use tools to report harmful content, and be transparent and accountable to users by submitting annual online safety reports for publishing on IMDA's website. According to IMDA, this is the first year social media services have submitted their annual online safety reports.

After IMDA assessed whether the services' measures were comprehensive and effective in achieving the outcomes of the code, each platform received an overall rating and individual ratings which reflect the extent to which the services achieved this.

Overall, the ratings show that social media services performed better in user safety measures for all users, and accountability, while some services did not do as well in user safety measures for children, and user reporting and resolution.

TikTok earned the highest overall rating, with Facebook, HardwareZone and Instagram coming in joint second. X, formerly known as Twitter, scored the lowest, with an overall rating of 2.5 out of five. All except X achieved a perfect score with user safety measures for all end-users, with X scoring a 2.5 out of 5 in that category.

In terms of user safety measures for children, Instagram and TikTok came out on top with a perfect score, followed by Youtube and HardwareZone, with X coming in last again. HardwareZone scored the highest for user reporting and resolution, while the rest of the services received a score between two and three out of five. HardwareZone, TikTok and X received a perfect score for accountability, with Facebook, Instagram and Youtube all coming in join second. 

According to IMDA, the report found that the services have largely put in place safety measures for all users, including having community guidelines, content moderation, tools for users to manage their own safety, and Singapore-based safety resources. However, it stated that X needs to improve the effectiveness of its efforts in proactively detecting and removing child sexual exploitation and abuse material.

In addition, IMDA highlighted that there were instances where children’s accounts on Facebook and YouTube could access age-inappropriate content that should have been restricted under their own community guidelines. Moreover, children’s accounts on X could easily access explicit adult sexual content. IMDA stated that HardwareZone needs to improve its measures to restrict children from accessing its service or put in place comprehensive safety measures for children.

With regards to reporting and resolution, IMDA urged services to improve the effectiveness and timeliness of their response to user reports. The report noted that all the services, except HardwareZone, took action on only approximately 50% or less of the content that violated their own community guidelines. According to IMDA, this means that a significant proportion of legitimate user reports were not acted on. Most services also took an average of five days or more to take action on these user reports.

In light of the report, IMDA prompts the services to take greater responsibility to protect children. IMDA has recently made it a requirement for "Designated app distribution services" to implement age assurance measures to ensure young users do not download apps that are inappropriate for their age. The authority is also studying how social media platforms should use age assurance technology to better protect children and youth online. IMDA noted that services will need to provide the authority with updates on the steps taken to improve on these areas in their next annual online safety report.

IMDA added, "At the same time, the government will continue to enhance public education efforts to equip Singaporeans with the knowledge and skills to go online safely, securely and safeguard themselves against online harms and threats. We will also further strengthen collaboration with stakeholders across the '3P' sectors (people, private and public) to enhance online safety for users in Singapore."

At the Safer internet day roundtable engagement on Monday (17 February), Josephine Teo, minister for digital development and information touched on the report's findings, stating the government hopes to set out society's expectations of the designated social media services on behalf of Singapore users through the code.

"As we learn about the services, we must determine the most appropriate ways to gauge users’ sense of safety when engaging with social media services," she said.

It has been made evident in recent times that the Southeast Asia (SEA) region loves social media, with all nations using more platforms than the global average of 6.83. This is in comparison to 8.36 apps for users in the Philippines, 8.12 in Malaysia, 7.93 in Indonesia, 7.24 in Singapore and 7.11 in both Vietnam and Thailand. Off these apps, YouTube tops the user charts, especially in Thailand where it is the second most engaged market. This is according to We Are Social and Meltwater's latest Digital 2025 report, an annual report on social media and digital trends worldwide. 

According to the study, there are 5.24 billion social media user identities. This is 63.9% of the total global population. The number pf global social media user grows +0.5% (+24 million) quarter-on-quarter and +4.1% (+206 million) year-on-year. On average, users spend 2 hours and 21 minutes using social media and use an average of 6.8 social platforms each month. 

Users namely use the internet to reclaim joy and to dig deeper into entertainment, according to the report. This also signifies a move to creative-led content to lead the way in responding to and shaping popular culture. In fact, Meltwater's 'Marketing trends to watch in 2025' report revealed that people now spend more time on social media than watching conventional TV. This marks an important shift in media consumption where even though TV time is declining, video remains as important as ever, with platforms such as TikTok and YouTube allowing audiences to watch on their own terms. 

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