Indonesia has urged social media companies and digital platforms to report the number of accounts that have been suspended as part of the implementation of government regulations restricting access for children under 16.
This follows after Indonesia began implementing a new government regulation at the end of March banning children younger than 16 from accessing digital platforms that could expose them to pornography, cyberbullying, online scams and addiction.
Not all social media and digital platforms immediately complied with the regulation, which affects some 70 million children and young people in Indonesia.
TikTok became the first platform to report measurable progress in compliance when it said it deactivated 1.7 million accounts belonging to children under 16.
Seven of the eight platforms classified as high-risk, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, have committed to restricting children’s access to their services.Only Roblox, the gaming platform, has yet to agree to block access for children under 16.
YouTube announced its commitment to restricting access for younger users three weeks after the restrictions took effect, but has not yet specified how many accounts belonging to children were identified and suspended. “We remain focused on protecting the community and will continue working closely with the Indonesian government to support a secure digital future for the next generation,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.
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. Indonesia became the first country in Southeast Asia to follow suit.
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.
Indonesia’s Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid, said, “We will continue to insist that compliance alone is not enough; we must also report the figures to the public in the interest of transparency.” Hafid said that young people in Indonesia spend up to eight hours a day online.
She added that the country’s large population likely “explains the platforms’ reluctance to accelerate compliance with this regulation.”
Hafid Acknowledges Challenges In Implementing Regulation
Hafid believes there are still challenges in implementing the regulation, and the Indonesian government has said it would allow platforms to determine their own methods for account verification.
“We understand the technology will continue to evolve rapidly. However, the platform is responsible for determining the best and most appropriate technology for its needs.”
Meutya Hafid
Critics have highlighted the practical challenges of enforcing the rule. Reliable age verification often requires collecting sensitive personal data, prompting concerns over privacy and data security.
Nenden Sekar Arum, Executive Director of the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, or SAFEnet, a digital rights group opined that some children will find a way to use fake identification, such as using their parents’ account.
Arum said that is why the government needs to oversee the user identity verification methods employed by each platform to ensure consistent compliance.
“The core problem is not the presence of children in the digital space, but how that digital space is shaped into a safe ecosystem. And how to ensure that those who are actually making this ecosystem harmful are held accountable. That is what needs to be addressed.”
Nenden Sekar Arum
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