Singapore to strengthen social media safeguards for teenagers

Singapore will require social media platforms to strengthen age verification and introduce tougher safeguards for young users, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said as he unveiled a broad package of measures aimed at supporting families and protecting children.

PM Wong underlined that one in six young people aged 10 to 24 in Singapore show signs of problematic social media use, with some spending six or seven hours a day on platforms, sometimes late into the night.

He said existing age-verification systems, which largely rely on users declaring their own age, were not working effectively.

“Self-declaration is just not good enough,” Wong said.

Under the new approach, social media platforms will have to introduce robust and reliable checks to ensure minimum age requirements are properly enforced.

Most platforms currently set a minimum age of 13, but Wong said children and teenagers remain particularly vulnerable to the effects of excessive social media use.

“Their brains are still developing. They are more susceptible to social pressures and more easily hooked by features designed to keep them constantly engaged,” he said.

For users aged 13 and above, Singapore will require platforms to introduce stronger protections to make social media safer by design. Platforms that want to serve young users in Singapore will have to meet the new requirements.

If safeguards remain inadequate, the government could impose additional restrictions, including raising the minimum age for access to a platform above 13.

Wong said the measures reflected Singapore's broader approach to technological change, which seeks to capture the benefits of innovation while managing potential risks.

“We will seize the opportunities. We will manage the disruption. And where there are real risks to our people and society, we will put safeguards in place,” he said.

Apart from this, PM Wong also announced measures covering childcare leave, financial support, preschool, housing and support for larger families. 

Under the new childcare leave arrangement, working parents will receive eight days of leave if they have one child aged 12 or below, 10 days with two children aged 12 or below, and 12 days with three or more children.

Wong said the change would significantly increase the amount of leave available to larger families. A working couple with three primary-school children, for example, would move from four days of childcare leave to 24 days collectively.