JAKARTA – On Saturday, Indonesia rolled out a groundbreaking regulation that prohibits children under 16 from accessing digital platforms with potential exposure to harmful content like pornography, cyberbullying, online scams, and addiction. This regulation was approved earlier this month and marks a significant step in safeguarding young internet users.

By implementing this ban, Indonesia has become the pioneer in Southeast Asia to restrict minors from creating accounts on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, and Roblox. This move mirrors Australia’s precedent-setting action last year, where they led a global charge to limit social media access for children, aiming to empower families against tech giants and better protect teenagers.

Authorities in Indonesia have indicated that the enforcement of these restrictions will be phased in over time to ensure full compliance across all digital platforms.

When the new regulation was unveiled in March, Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs, highlighted that this policy will impact approximately 70 million children in the country, which boasts a population nearing 280 million.

Challenges Ahead

Hafid noted that digital platforms deemed high-risk are characterized by their ease of exposing children to strangers, potential predators, and harmful content, alongside vulnerabilities to exploitation and data security threats.

But she acknowledged that implementing the new regulation — even gradually as planned — will be difficult. Getting digital platforms to comply and then making them report deactivations of under-16 accounts is difficult.

“This is certainly a task. But we must take steps to save our children,” Hafid said. “It’s not easy. Nevertheless, we must see it through.”

Maura Munthe, a 13-year-old who spends roughly four hours a day on her phone on social media, including playing games on Roblox with her friends, said she feels “kind of 50-50” about the new government policy but mostly agrees with it.

Her peers in school, she says, worry they will miss out on all the fun and entertainment they now have access to.

“There are always other games on my phone, not only the online ones,” she said. “I will likely play more games alone or just hang out with my friends.”

Munthe’s mother, Leni Sinuraya, 47, said she has for years trusted her daughter to use her phone wisely, both when studying and when playing online games. Still, she sees the government’s move as good for all children in Indonesia.

Parents, she says, have lost control — and social media platforms have taken over.

“Nowadays, when we see kids sitting in a restaurant, they have a phone right in front of them. It’s clear that they’re addicted,” Sinuraya said. “They won’t eat unless they’re given a phone, and they throw a tantrum if they aren’t.”

“Mealtime is supposed to be a time for us to chat with the people around us,” she added.

Protecting the children

Based in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, Diena Haryana founded Semai Jiwa Amini foundation — also known as SEJIWA, a nonprofit that works on online child safety and protection.

According to Haryana, studies have shown that children’s use of social media can impact their mental health and trigger anxiety and depression.

But, she says, digital platforms also offer advantages and open up a whole realm of learning. Her foundation has tried to get parents and communities to work together on providing guidance and supervision for children in the online world.

“We also need to remember that they need to learn to use this digital technology at the right time, at the right age, and with the right guidance as well,” she said.

Haryana said the effects of restricting access to social media and digital platforms to children under 16 will only be seen once the measure is in place — she predicted both complaints from children and confusion among parents.

Parents and schools are expected to provide children with solutions on how to learn in the real world — not the digital one, she said.

“Of course, this takes time to get used to, which is why parents and schools need to encourage children to engage with the real world and make it fun for them,” Haryana added. “And there’s plenty in the real world for children to explore.”

So far, few platforms have reacted to Indonesia’s new regulation.

Elon Musk’s X on its Indonesia Online Safety Information page gives 16 as the minimum age required for users in the country. “It’s not our choice – it’s what Indonesian law requires,” the page says.

Google-owned YouTube said it supports the Indonesian government’s effort to create an effective, risk-based framework that addresses online harms while preserving access to information and digital opportunity.

“We are ready to engage under the regulation’s self-assessment approach to demonstrate our long-standing safety rigor,” it said.

Restrictions on social media access for children under 16 first began in December in Australia, where social media companies revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children.

Some other countries — including Spain, France and the United Kingdom — are also taking or considering measures to restrict children’s access to social media amid growing concern that they are being harmed by exposure to unregulated social media content.