A Malaysian court has acquitted a teenage boy of murdering his schoolmate after finding he was mentally unsound at the time, in a case that gripped the country and prompted a national debate about social media's influence on children. The boy, who was 14 when he fatally stabbed 16-year-old Yap Shing Xuen in a toilet at their school near Kuala Lumpur, cannot be named as he remains a minor. The judge ordered him detained for psychiatric treatment rather than releasing him outright, and he will remain in hospital until deemed fit for release, subject to annual reviews.

Defence lawyers did not dispute that the boy killed his schoolmate but argued he should be acquitted on grounds of insanity, citing a psychiatrist's testimony that he had suffered from schizophrenia and delusions since the age of nine, with his condition worsening during the pandemic. The case, and a leaked note found on the boy at his arrest, fuelled comparisons to Netflix drama Adolescence and led Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to link such violence to mobile phone and social media use. Since June, Malaysia has banned children under 16 from holding accounts on major social media platforms, a policy shift authorities say was partly spurred by this case.