Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Rahayu Mahzam told families at the Digital for Life Festival at VivoCity on 24 October that Singapore will move from consultation to legislation in early 2027, setting tiered safeguards on major social platforms instead of shutting them off for teenagers.
What the consultation found
Between June and August 2026, MDDI gathered views from more than 2,000 parents and youths. Roughly eight in ten parents and seven in ten youths said they would rather see graduated access controls than an outright prohibition on social media, according to ministry briefings tied to the festival rollout.
Officials said the feedback shapes a code that will cover designated services including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X and HardwareZone. Children under 13 would not be allowed to hold accounts on those services. Users aged 13 to 17 would face default safeguards on direct messages from strangers, autoplay and daily time limits, while parents could adjust those defaults within the rules.
Designated services and household defaults
The designated list matters because only covered platforms must build age-assurance flows and parental controls to a single standard. Parents interviewed at the festival said they want one place to see what each app allows, rather than hunting through separate settings menus.
Rahayu said the ministry will publish draft rules for public comment before the early-2027 legislative window. Industry groups have been told to prepare age-verification pilots that do not store unnecessary biometric data, a concern raised repeatedly in the consultation summaries.
What changes for schools and counsellors
Educators at the event said tiered access aligns with how they already teach digital literacy: younger pupils learn boundaries first, while older students practise responsible posting under supervision. Counsellors noted that a ban-only approach pushed some teens to alternate accounts their parents could not see.
MDDI officials stressed that legislation sets a floor, not a ceiling. Families that want stricter limits can still use device-level screen-time tools. The ministry will run roadshows through year-end 2026 to explain how defaults will look on each designated service once providers wire them in.
Why HardwareZone is on the list
Including the long-running forum HardwareZone alongside global social networks signals that lawmakers are not only worried about video feeds. Moderation teams at local boards will need age-assurance flows even when content is text-heavy, a detail technical parents at VivoCity said they appreciated because younger teens sometimes treat forums as quieter alternatives to TikTok.
Platform representatives at the festival demo booths said they are mapping which settings will be switched on by default for 13- to 17-year-olds: stranger DMs off, autoplay muted, and daily time reminders that can be tightened but not fully disabled without a parent PIN. The ministry has not published exact minute caps yet, but consultation slides shown to participants referenced ranges similar to those used in Australia’s youth-social-media pilots.
Timeline to early 2027
Parliament is expected to take up the bill after the draft rules close for comment. Platforms would then have a compliance period before enforcement bites. Rahayu said the government will pair the law with continued Digital for Life programming so lower-income households receive the same guidance on parental controls as those who attended the VivoCity sessions.
Youth volunteers at the festival ran peer-led workshops on spotting grooming tactics in game chat, a programme MDDI wants to scale because roughly seven in ten young respondents backed tiered access only when paired with education, not filters alone. Social workers said the combination matters for families where grandparents watch children after school and may not know how to toggle safety settings.
For now, the consultation numbers give MDDI political cover to pursue tiered access rather than a ban, even as some advocacy groups continue to push for harder age floors. The ministry’s next update is due when draft subsidiary legislation is released for public feedback.