Josephine Teo on enterprise AI adoption and online safety regulation

IMDA's second Online Safety Assessment Report scores six platforms on child safety, user-report response, broader tools, and annual reporting compliance. Sexual content, violent content and cyberbullying topped the list of items removed after user reports in 2025. X cut average action time from 10 days to 5, HardwareZone from 3 days to 2, and Facebook and Instagram registered the biggest jumps in cases attended to. Only TikTok regressed.

Minister Josephine Teo compared social media services to cars: if safety features fall short, the platform should not be allowed on the road. She said the government is prepared to ban services that fail child-safety requirements, and mandatory age assurance will be part of the next round of online safety regulations. The six designated firms must submit annual safety reports by 30 June.

On AI, Teo said the government is watching employment effects closely. If a sector deploys AI in ways that harm workers, intervention is on the table — modelled on the SG United Traineeship that placed over 12,500 graduates between June 2020 and March 2022, with 9 in 10 finding work within six months. The National AI Impact Programme aims to train 10,000 firms and 100,000 workers; HR, legal, accountancy and logistics sectors are already in active discussions.

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Keeping young minds away from social media sites that could contain harmful content is a key area the government hopes to address. IMDA has released its second online safety assessment report, which aims to help Singapore users make informed decisions about the risks and safety measures on several platforms. Nicholas Ang with more. Sexual and violent content, as well as cyberbullying. These were the top three kinds of harmful material removed by social media platforms as a result of user reports in 2025. That's according to the IMDA's online safety assessment report, which looks at six services: Facebook, HardwareZone, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube. It rates the platforms in four areas of the online safety code of practice.

How well systems and tools help to keep harmful content away from all users, how well it's done specifically for children. A third section, how quickly and effectively the services act on users' reports on harmful content. And finally, making sure annual online safety reports are submitted. For child safety, Facebook and YouTube had lapses in preventing children from accessing sexual content. And HardwareZone's age check, consisting of a checkbox, was found to be ineffective and has since been changed. And this area of making sure people the right age are accessing the right social media sites is something authorities are watching closely. So, age assurance is something that we will definitely do. We've talked about it. And it's it's part of the uh enhancements of the online safety regulations that we will uh certainly implement.

But, there is more. That could mean restricting child access to chat services or stopping features that promote excessive use, like autoplay. If a car did not have the adequate safety measures, we wouldn't want anyone to drive it. And so, we need to be mentally prepared. If the safety features are not good enough, then we'll have to say, is it roadworthy? And should children be exposed to it? Do you mean to say that it's the there's a possibility that the government may ban a social media service if it doesn't meet the requisite standards? Well, if you find that a particular service is just like a a particular make of a car is not uh safe to use, you must seriously then think about taking it off. And so, that's the kind of approach that we are prepared to take. We we would have to look at the specific design of the service.

We would have to look specifically as uh at the kind of child safety features that can be introduced, and then we will assess. And yes, if we need to take this vehicle off the road, we may have to. As for the section on user reports, all six improved on the percentage of cases attended to, except for TikTok. Facebook and Instagram registered big jumps. All of them have responded faster. X reduced average action time from 10 days to five. HardwareZone's figure is now two days from three in 2024. We do see some improvement from 2024 to 2025. And of course, there are serious, you know, um safety gaps that we means to be, you know, patched and all.

Um and I think it's quite heartening to see that um the platforms are reacting quite well to the feedback that is given in the previous year, taking that into consideration to basically patch out this uh some of these uh safety um gap. The six designated firms have to submit annual reports on the 30th of June each year, detailing their online safety measures. Mrs. Teo says the government is prepared to adjust its plans or even intervene if AI adoption by businesses do not have the desired effect. Here's Nicholas Ang again. Mrs. Teo says the government is keeping a close eye on AI's impact on employment, even as it pushes for more adoption. For fresh graduates, for example, she notes how those who enter into a soft employment market may suffer long-lasting effects, but the government is prepared to step in.

But just to cite polls what we were able to do in in, you know, past occasions where there was a concern about graduate employment. Uh during COVID, for example, we came up with the SG United uh scheme where >> [snorts] >> trainees uh we helped them to acquire this initial start to their careers. And the government came in generous support towards the employers. More than 12,500 graduates went through the government-funded SG United Traineeship Program from June 2020 to March 2022. Nine in 10 found employment within six months after joining the program. Mrs. Teo also acknowledges similar concerns for those already in the workforce. We want growth that uplifts many businesses and many members of the workforce.

So, if we see that a certain uh domain, a certain sector, the way in which AI is being implemented is impacting people in not the right ways, we would then have to see what are the uh interventions that we need to introduce, and then also look at what we can potentially do to support the the the people who are affected. She also shared updates on the recently announced National AI Impact Program, which aims to train 10,000 enterprises and 100,000 workers. Sectors involved include the legal and accountancy professions. What I can share with you is that uh we have been in a discussion with the HR profession. Um and uh since I talked about it, um uh the logistics sector has also been very forward-leaning. They want to see what more they can do for their members and so on. So, you know, more to come. Mrs.

Teo says that one of the metrics of a successful AI program is that employability remains high. We want to make sure that Singapore continues to provide good opportunities for people to advance. And advancement must certainly also involve your salaries, your wage levels. Uh so, we will be looking at these kind of broader uh indicators of whether as a whole, the economy is still able to create good jobs, sustain good jobs, and individuals that are part of the workforce continue to be able to make progress.