Following in Australia’s footsteps, Indonesia will be the latest country to limit social media use for children under 16. Indonesia’s Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs Meutya Hafid announced that new government regulation starting on March 28 will require “high-risk” platforms to remove the accounts of any Indonesian under the age of 16.
Hafidh said in the announcement that the implementation will be done in phases, starting with major platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Roblox, and Singapore-based live-streaming platform Bigo Live. The minister said all platforms would have to meet compliance obligations from the Indonesian government, but did not specify what they were. In response to the ban, Meta spokesperson said the new York Times The company has not yet received any official regulation from the country and is awaiting details.
While Australia was the first country to implement such a blanket ban on social media, several other countries are also currently in the process of doing so. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced last month that the country is also set to ban social media for users under the age of 16, while Malaysia’s cabinet has approved a similar ban that will reportedly take effect sometime this year.
<a href