Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said the move was aimed at strengthening security and plugging weaknesses in the current system, including the unusually high number of SIM cards that could be registered under one individual’s name.

“At the Digital Economy and Fourth Industrial Revolution Council meeting yesterday, prepaid SIM card registration was among the matters discussed.

“Telcos will be directed to ensure the registration process for prepaid SIM cards will also adopt MyDigital ID. This is expected to be implemented by year-end, possibly November or December,” he said at his weekly press conference today.

He was responding to concerns that the government’s push to tighten age verification on social media platforms such as TikTok could fail unless loopholes in SIM card registration were fixed first.

Siraj Jalil, president of the Malaysian Cyber Consumers Association, had said that while concerns over online threats to children were valid, the real problem lay with the “gateway” to internet access and the widespread availability of pre-registered SIM cards.

Fahmi, who is also the government’s spokesman, said MyDigital ID would introduce stronger security features, adding that this would help close loopholes.