Indonesia made a landmark decision to ban social media for children under the age of 16. This move makes it the first country in Southeast Asia and the first non-Western nation to implement such a strict age-based restriction.
Meutya Hafid, the Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs of Indonesia, signed a regulation that prohibits children under 16 from creating and using accounts on digital platforms classified as high-risk by the Indonesian government.
The ban specifically targets the following platform categories:
• Video and Social: YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads
• Microblogging: X or Twitter
• Gaming and Streaming: Roblox and Bigo Live
Specific enforcement is set to begin gradually on 28 March 2026. The government will deactivate existing accounts belonging to minors in stages. The gradual rollout is intended to give platforms time to fulfill their compliance obligations and update their age-verification systems.
The Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs framed the regulation as a needed intervention in what the government considers a digital emergency.
Below are the stated goals of the Indonesian government:
• Combating Addiction: Protecting children in Indonesia from the algorithms designed to keep them engaged and hooked indefinitely.
• Safety: Reducing exposure to sensitive and illegal online content and activities such as pornography, cyberbullying, and online fraud or scams.
• Parental Support: Hafid noted that the government is stepping in so that “parents no longer have to fight alone” against tech companies.
• Sovereignty: Reclaiming sovereignty over the future of Indonesian children by limiting the influence of unregulated digital content.
Note that the announcement followed a surprise inspection of the Meta office in Jakarta. The ministry issued a warning regarding its low level of compliance with regulations. These include the spread of harmful content like online gambling and disinformation.
There are challenges to enforcement. Most age-based restrictions are historically difficult to enforce because most platforms rely on self-declaration.
Strict age verification also often requires biometric data or government-issued identification documents, such as official IDs. Data privacy advocates have raised concerns over the potential for serious data breaches by hackers and for government-backed mass surveillance.
In late 2025, the government of Australia implemented a similar social media ban for children under 16, which resulted in the removal of about 4.7 million accounts.
Countries like France and Spain, along with the European Parliament, are currently debating or piloting similar age-verification laws.