KUALA LUMPUR, JUNE 24 — The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Ibrahim, today granted a personal donation of RM500,000 to fire victims in the Kudat and Sandakan districts, Sabah.
His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan Agong witnessed the presentation of a gift by the Trustee of the Sultan Ibrahim Foundation of Johor (YSIJ), Tan Sri Avinderjit Singh, to the Chief Minister of Sabah, Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, in a ceremony at the Istana Negara here.
The donation was channeled through YSIJ to help ease the burden of more than 1,000 victims affected by fires in the two districts last April.
According to incident information, a fire in Kampung Gumpa, Kudat on April 16 destroyed eight houses and affected 67 victims from 18 Heads of Households (KIR).
The fire in Kampung Bahagia, Sandakan was a large-scale incident that destroyed 1,050 of the 1,200 houses in the area.
The incident also affected at least 914 KIRs.
The Sabah State Government, through the State and District Disaster Management Committees, is currently coordinating welfare assistance, humanitarian aid and resettlement efforts for the victims involved.
— MINUTESMY
![KUALA LUMPUR, JUNE 24 -- The Child Protection Code (CPC) sets out a safe, practical and responsible age verification mechanism to ensure that only eligible users are allowed to access social media platforms. Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil said the CPC together with the Risk Reduction Code (RMC) were published by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) on May 22, and came into effect on June 1 under the Online Safety Act 2025 [Act 866]. He said both codes aim to create a safer online environment, particularly to protect children from online risks and harm. "Under the CPC, licensed service providers offering social media services are required to implement an age verification mechanism, rather than identity verification, to ensure compliance with the minimum age limit set. "Users who have reached the age of 16 are allowed to register and have social media accounts, while individuals under that age are not allowed to open or have social media accounts until they reach the specified age," he said during a question and answer session at the Dewan Rakyat, today. He was answering Syahredzan Johan's (PH-Bangi) original question regarding the purpose of implementing age verification for social media accounts, as well as measures to ensure access to personal data is restricted and deleted after use. Fahmi said the implementation of the mechanism should be done safely, practically and respectful of user privacy, in line with the requirements set out under the CPC. Social media service providers are also required to ensure that the process complies with laws relating to personal data protection, including the principles of data minimization, and purpose limitation by limiting data collection to information necessary for age verification purposes and disposing of it upon completion. He said the age verification mechanism should be implemented based on official documents issued by the Malaysian Government such as MyKad, passport, birth certificate or other documents recognised by the government. "To ensure that the age verification mechanism is not manipulated, age verification must be supported by official government records and not just self-declaration." "The CPC also allows the use of other documents recognised by the Malaysian Government, including equivalent records issued by competent authorities in other jurisdictions so that access to online protection can be provided equitably to all children regardless of their documentation status," he said. Fahmi said the implementation of age verification does not permanently prevent children from using social media, but rather postpones account ownership until they reach the age of 16, and have a more appropriate level of maturity to use the platform safely and responsibly. He said the approach known as the "Wait 16" initiative was introduced to protect children and families from online risks and harm. -- BERNAMA](https://minutesmy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/TB_Fahmi-Fadzil-Dewan-Rakyat_BERNAMA-1024x576.webp)
