Beyond Parental Control: Digital Literacy and Adolescent Online Safety in Malaysia

Malaysia’s transition into a highly connected digital society has intensified both the opportunities and risks experienced by adolescents. This article examines how parental mediation and digital literacy interact with online risk and evaluates whether a parent-centred model remains adequate following the commencement of the Online Safety Act 2025 and the introduction of social-media account restrictions for users below 16. Using a doctrinal and evidence-informed socio-legal approach, the study applies a transparent purposive selection framework to Malaysian legislation, subsidiary instruments, official statistics, published child-consultation evidence and peer-reviewed empirical research. Sources were included where they addressed adolescent participation, parental mediation, digital literacy, disclosure, platform design or institutional accountability, and were synthesised against four outcomes: exposure, competence, trust and disclosure, and access to remedy. The analysis finds that digital literacy has a dual effect: it expands learning and participation while also increasing encounters with risk. Restrictive mediation may reduce immediate exposure but can suppress skills, trust and disclosure, whereas active mediation and proportionate supervision are more compatible with resilience. Recent consultations involving children in Malaysia reinforce that online access is integral to education and connection, while young users may still feel unsafe, unheard and left to manage harm alone. The Online Safety Act 2025 shifts responsibility towards platforms through duties concerning safe design, reporting, assistance and child-user protection. The article develops a Shared Digital Responsibility Model that assigns distinct obligations to adolescents, caregivers, schools, platforms and regulators, and operationalises the model through phased implementation, measurable indicators, coordinated oversight and independent evaluation. It concludes that Malaysian policy should measure protection not by reduced access alone, but by whether adolescents can participate online with competence, privacy, trusted support, effective remedies and meaningful institutional accountability.

parental mediation, digital literacy, adolescent online safety, platform accountability

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