KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia needs to broaden its approach to online safety by looking beyond harmful content and addressing how artificial intelligence (AI) and digital platforms affect the way people think, behave and make decisions, said Lardi & Partner Consulting CEO Kamales Lardi.
The expert said neuroscience should become part of the country’s next phase of online safety policies as AI becomes increasingly integrated into daily life, particularly among younger users.
“I definitely think so. Neuroscience can help regulators understand that human impact behind the technology rather than just regulating at a technical or process level, you can start regulating the impacts of the outputs as well on people,” Kamales told Scoop.
She said current online safety measures largely focus on the type of content users encounter, while emerging risks are increasingly linked to the way people engage with AI systems and recommendation algorithms.
The global authority on neuroscience-driven AI and digital transformation said generative AI tools and recommendation systems can influence users’ attention, emotions, beliefs, decisions and behaviour, creating risks that traditional content moderation may not be able to fully address.
“It’s not just the harm of what people can see on these platforms but it also introduced the harm of the interaction with the systems especially when you think about like generative AI and recommendation algorithms, they influence our attention, our emotional state, our beliefs, the decisions we make, our behaviours,” she explained.
Kamales said a more comprehensive framework for online safety should consider three key areas — content, interaction and cognition.
“When we talk about governance I think what ONSA as a next step could look at as well is beyond the content layer you need to look at the interaction layer how people are interacting with these intelligent systems and then the next layer is the cognitive layer,” she added.
She highlighted that cognitive risks are especially significant among young people who are growing up in an environment where AI is becoming a routine part of their lives.
According to Kamales, younger users could become overly reliant on AI systems, allowing technology to shape their thinking instead of using it as a tool to strengthen their own judgement.
“We see that AI is impacting how we’re thinking, people are very quickly slipping into this passenger mode, they’re not aware of it themselves but they are going into sort of a passive thinking, not proactively thinking and allowing AI to guide their thinking,” she said.
She said Malaysia should consider introducing the concept of cognitive governance alongside existing safeguards involving AI, technology, data protection and cybersecurity.
For children, she said education should focus not only on how to use AI tools but also on developing computational thinking skills.
“Computational thinking goes into logical problem solving how technology impacts or accelerates that problem solving how you can apply technology in different parts of different areas of business these are or different areas of life these are elements of understanding the technology and thinking in a way that allows you to make the best use of the technology,” she said.
Kamales stressed that online safety should not depend solely on parents, schools or government restrictions, adding that young people must gradually develop self-governance, critical thinking and responsibility for their own digital actions.
“You cannot impose rules on sophisticated, intelligent people. You have to govern with them,” she said.
She added that Malaysia’s cultural values could also contribute to healthier digital habits, including through practices that encourage real-world interaction and stronger social connections.
“We need to have certain ground rules and say, when is AI and this technology acceptable to use, when they are not,” she said.
However, Kamales stressed that regulation should not seek to control people’s views or freedom of thought, but instead prevent technology platforms from manipulating or excessively influencing those views.
“We don’t want to regulate those opinions. We want to regulate how AI and these technology platforms influence our opinions.”
With AI development moving faster than regulatory frameworks, Kamales said Malaysia has an opportunity to shift from responding to existing online harms towards creating policies that safeguard human autonomy before cognitive risks become harder to manage. – August 22, 2026