Beyond Blame and Bans in the Age of Social Media

By, Dr. Shafizan Mohamed

Whenever young people behave badly or act out violently, it has become almost instinctive to blame social media. The platforms are accused of corrupting values, fuelling aggression, and isolating children from reality. While these concerns are understandable, such reactions often overlook the deeper social and emotional factors shaping youth behaviour. It is too easy — and too comforting — to treat social media as the villain, when in truth, it merely amplifies risks that already exist within families, schools, and communities.

The recent violent incidents in Malaysian schools has reignited these anxieties, leading many to question how digital exposure influences young people’s conduct. Yet to say that social media causes violence is inaccurate. What it does is magnify tendencies, emotions, and behaviours that may already be present. The same pattern has appeared throughout history — from television and comic books to video games — every new medium has been blamed for moral decline. What makes today’s situation more urgent is the sheer scale and intimacy of digital media, which is no longer something we consume passively, but something that shapes how we live, learn, and relate to one another every day.

That pervasiveness also means we can no longer simply ban or blame the media. Technology is not something we can switch off. It is part of how we communicate, learn, and connect. Instead, we must learn to live with it wisely — to adapt, guide, and equip ourselves and our children with the skills to navigate it safely.

Social media platforms are designed to capture attention and amplify emotion. Algorithms reward outrage and controversy, making aggressive content more visible and influential. Over time, this exposure normalizes harmful behaviour, dulls empathy, and pushes some youth toward mimicry or emotional detachment.

Societal Approach to Digital Resilience

The solution does not lie strictly in restriction, but more in education and resilience. Digital literacy and emotional awareness must be treated as core life skills, not optional lessons. This means teaching young people not just how to use technology, but how to interpret, question, and manage it. Schools can embed media literacy into existing subjects — for example, analysing news bias in language classes or discussing algorithmic influence in civic education. Lessons on empathy, digital citizenship, and online ethics should be delivered consistently from primary school onwards, helping students recognise misinformation, peer pressure, and emotional manipulation online.

At the same time, teacher training must evolve to include digital pedagogy and media awareness so that educators can model responsible use themselves. Parents, too, should be equipped through community workshops or school partnerships to understand the platforms, games, and influencers that shape their children’s worldview. This means moving beyond monitoring apps or screen limits toward open, empathetic conversations about what children see and feel online.

Governments and private sectors can support this ecosystem by funding nationwide digital literacy campaigns, creating accessible online resources, and collaborating with tech platforms to promote safer content algorithms. When education, parenting, and policy work in tandem, digital resilience becomes a cultural norm — not just an emergency response to crises.

Regulating Children’s Digital Access

Around the world, countries like France and Denmark are exploring age limits and parental consent mechanisms for social media use among those under 15. These are good steps, but policy alone cannot change culture. Any attempt to regulate children’s social media usage must not be a knee-jerk response to public pressure or isolated incidents. It has to be a well-calculated and well-designed legislation — one that protects children from harm without hampering their creativity, learning, and digital potential. Legislation that overreaches or restricts access too broadly risks denying young people the very opportunities that digital spaces can offer — from education and expression to innovation and connection.

Before introducing any form of restriction, countries that have moved toward regulating children’s social media usage have typically gone through an extensive process of consultation and research. In France, for example, the proposed law requiring parental consent for users under 15 was preceded by a national commission study on youth digital behaviour, followed by public hearings with educators, psychologists, and digital rights advocates. Denmark’s approach involved collaboration with child development experts and the technology sector to design “digital well-being” frameworks that focus on safety, privacy, and balanced use rather than blanket bans. Similarly, the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act emerged after years of white papers, parliamentary inquiries, and engagement with civil society to ensure that children’s rights and digital learning opportunities were preserved.

We need a collective effort involving families, educators, policymakers, and digital platforms to create an ecosystem that promotes empathy, accountability, and balance.

Ultimately, blaming social media alone is a lazy way to avoid responsibility. It shifts focus away from the deeper, harder work of nurturing awareness, empathy, and guidance in our homes, schools, and communities. Social media may amplify the risks, but it is people, not platforms who determine how those risks manifest.

We cannot escape technology, but we can learn to coexist with it intelligently and ethically. The challenge now is not to shut out the digital world but to make sure our children, and we ourselves, have the resilience and wisdom to live well within it.

Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Shafizan binti Mohamed is an Associate Professor from the Department of Communication of AHAS KIRKHS, IIUM Gombak.