Indonesia began enforcing a new government regulation on Saturday that prevents children under 16 from holding accounts on digital platforms deemed likely to expose them to pornography, cyberbullying, scams and addiction.
The rule makes Indonesia the first country in Southeast Asia to bar under-16s from signing up to major services named by regulators, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox. The move follows Australia’s introduction last year of social media restrictions for children, part of wider efforts to give families more control and reduce online harms.
Officials said the restrictions will be implemented gradually while platforms bring their systems into compliance. Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said the regulation affects about 70 million children in Indonesia, a nation of roughly 280 million people. Authorities identified so-called high-risk platforms based on how easily young users might encounter strangers or predators, access harmful content, face exploitation or suffer data security risks.
Hafid acknowledged the enforcement challenge, saying it will be difficult to secure full cooperation from companies and to require them to report deactivations of under-16 accounts. She described the effort as necessary to protect children despite the practical and administrative hurdles.
Reaction among families was mixed. Thirteen-year-old Maura Munthe, who spends about four hours a day on her phone using social media and playing Roblox with friends, said she is roughly ambivalent but broadly supports the policy. Some classmates worry about losing a source of entertainment and social contact. Maura said she expects to shift toward other games on her phone or more in-person time with friends.
Her mother, 47-year-old Leni Sinuraya, said she had trusted her daughter to use a phone responsibly but welcomed the government measure, arguing that parents have lost control as platforms take over children’s attention. She described scenes of kids at restaurants glued to devices and said mealtimes should be opportunities for family conversation.
Diena Haryana, founder of SEJIWA, a Jakarta-based nonprofit focused on online child safety, noted that research links social media use to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, even though platforms can also offer educational benefits. Her organization urges parents and communities to guide and supervise children online and to teach digital skills at age-appropriate times. Haryana predicted complaints from young people and confusion for families as the rule takes effect, and said schools and parents will need to help children find engaging offline activities and learning opportunities.
So far few platforms have issued public responses. X’s Indonesia safety page lists 16 as the minimum age in the country and emphasizes that the requirement comes from Indonesian law. Google-owned YouTube said it supports a risk-based framework to address online harms while preserving access to information and opportunity, and that it is prepared to work with regulators under the regulation’s self-assessment approach.
Australia disabled about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children when it introduced its restrictions in December. Other countries, including Spain, France and the United Kingdom, are also taking or considering measures to limit children’s access to social media amid concerns about harms from unregulated content.
