On Saturday, Indonesia began imposing a complete ban on social media for children under 16 years old. According to the associated pressThe law is expressly aimed at preventing young people from encountering “pornography, cyberbullying, online scams, and addiction” online. The affected platforms are Roblox, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and a video chat platform. used in Southeast Asia called Bigo Live, AP says.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is by far the most significant ban of its kind yet.
Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world, has a It is estimated that 288 million people—and around 250 million of them are “mobile Internet users” according to statistics. If a quarter of the country is under 16 years old (and that is a conservative estimate since approximately a quarter of the country was under 14 years old in 2023), this law would directly impact 72 million people, which would be approximately 0.89% of the world’s population. Australia, famous for being the first country to pass a similar ban, has an estimated total population of 27.5 million in all ages.
Indonesia had already given signs that this ban was coming, announcing it in early this month. The Indonesian government says it is being implemented gradually, rather than all at once, AP notes. However, Indonesia’s Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid told the AP: “There will be no compromise on compliance, and all business entities operating in Indonesia must comply with Indonesian law.”
At a press conferenceHafid said in Indonesian (translated by Gizmodo with YouTube’s automatic translation feature) that there would be a one-year transition period before non-compliance would be penalized.
Last month, Indonesia lifted a nationwide ban on Grok, the xAI chatbot, which is attached to Elon Musk’s In January, Hafid explained the ban this way: “The government considers the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and security of citizens in the digital space.”
The AP quoted Hafid yesterday as saying that implementing a sweeping ban “is certainly a task. But we must take action to save our children,” adding: “It is not easy. However, we must carry it out.”
