Indonesia on Wednesday pressed major social media companies to be more transparent about enforcement of its new restrictions on access for children under 16, as it continues rolling out the rules that the government says are aimed at reducing risks such as pornography, cyberbullying, online scams and addiction.
Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said the ministry will continue to insist that compliance alone is not enough, calling for platforms to report the numbers of accounts that are suspended as part of the regulations. “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.
Indonesia began implementing the new government regulation at the end of March, banning children younger than 16 from accessing digital platforms that could expose them to the categories of harmful content and harms the government highlighted. Hafid said young people in Indonesia spend up to eight hours a day online, and she said the rule affects some 70 million children and young people in the country.
Not all platforms moved immediately after the restrictions took effect. Indonesia said seven of eight platforms classified as high-risk have committed to restricting children’s access, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and Bigo Live.
TikTok told the government it has made measurable progress in compliance, saying it deactivated 1.7 million accounts belonging to children under 16. Hafid said the country’s large population likely explains platforms’ reluctance to accelerate compliance with the regulation.
YouTube, meanwhile, announced its commitment to restricting access for younger users three weeks after the restrictions took effect, but it had not specified how many accounts belonging to children were identified and suspended as of Wednesday. A YouTube spokesperson said in a statement: “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.”
Roblox, a gaming platform, has yet to agree to block access for children under 16. The company did not immediately reply to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
Hafid pointed to privacy and implementation questions as part of the broader compliance effort, saying the government will 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,” she said.
Rights groups have raised concerns about the practical challenges of enforcing age limits. Nenden Sekar Arum, executive director of the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, said reliable age verification often requires collecting sensitive personal data, and some children may try to get around the rules by using parents’ accounts.
Arum said that is why the government needs oversight of the identity verification methods used by each platform. “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,” she said.
Indonesia’s approach follows similar moves elsewhere. Restrictions on social media access for children under 16 began in December in Australia, where social media companies revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children, and Indonesia said it 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 amid growing concern about potential harms from unregulated social media content.