How can Malaysia ensure safety by design under the Online Safety Act?

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Ensuring Safety by Design Under Malaysia's Online Safety Act

Malaysia can ensure safety by design under the Online Safety Act (ONSA) by embedding child safety, privacy, and wellbeing into digital products and services from their inception. This approach shifts the focus from merely verifying a child's age for platform entry to ensuring the platform itself is sufficiently safe for young users. The ONSA and its associated Child Protection and Risk Mitigation Codes provide a foundational framework for this, mandating that platform providers proactively assess and reduce online risks.
Integrating Safety from the Ground Up

The core principle of safety by design involves building child safety considerations directly into the development process of digital platforms and services. This means implementing stronger safeguards against unwanted contact, developing user-friendly reporting tools specifically for children, and enhancing content moderation processes. Furthermore, it necessitates minimising data collection practices, establishing clearer default privacy settings that favour greater protection, and designing recommendation systems that actively avoid directing children towards harmful or unsuitable content.
Mandating Platform Accountability and Risk Assessment

Under the ONSA framework, platform providers will be required to demonstrate their commitment to online safety through concrete actions. This includes conducting thorough risk assessments to identify potential harms to children, implementing measures to mitigate these identified risks, and transparently reporting on the steps they have taken. This shifts the responsibility from solely relying on users, including parents and educators, to manage online dangers, to placing a significant onus on the technology companies that create and operate these digital environments.
Empowering Children and Young People in Solution Development

A critical component of ensuring effective safety by design is the active involvement of children and young people themselves. As experienced users of digital platforms, they possess unique insights into the pressures, harms, and support mechanisms relevant to their online experiences. By including them in the co-creation of solutions—such as reporting tools, privacy settings, and age-appropriate design features—Malaysia can foster the development of safety measures that are more likely to be trusted, utilised, and continuously improved over time.
Fostering Collaborative Governance for a Balanced Approach

Achieving a balanced online safety model requires collaboration among various stakeholders, including regulators, platform providers, civil society organisations, parents, educators, and crucially, children and youth. This multi-stakeholder approach ensures that the solutions developed are practical, effective, and uphold children's rights while protecting them from abuse and exploitation. By leveraging the entry points provided by the ONSA, Malaysia has an opportunity to lead in creating digital spaces that are inherently safer, allowing children to learn, connect, and thrive without compromising their wellbeing.

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How can Malaysia ensure safety by design under the Online Safety Act?

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