After Australia, Indonesia Mulls Banning Social Media for Kids

Indonesia plans to issue a regulation to set a minimum age for users of social media, a move aimed at protecting children, its communications minister has said. The plans follows Australia's decision to ban children under 16 from accessing social media, with fines for tech giants from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok if they failed to prevent children accessing their platforms.

Minister Meutya Hafid did not say what the minimum age would be in Indonesia. Her remarks, made late on Monday, came after Meutya discussed the plan with President Prabowo Subianto.

"We discussed how to protect children in digital space," she said in a video uploaded on the YouTube channel of the president's office. "The president said to carry on with this plan. He is very supportive of how this kind of child protection will be done in our digital space," she said.

Internet penetration in Indonesia, a country of about 280 million people, reached 79.5 per cent last year, according to a survey of 8,700 people by the Indonesia Internet Service Providers' Association. The survey showed 48 per cent of children under 12 had access to the internet, with some respondents of that age group using Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. The survey showed internet penetration was 87 per cent among "Gen Z" users, or those aged 12 to 27.

Australia's landmark regulation

Australia last year passed into law a social media ban for children aged under 16 after an emotive debate that gripped the nation, setting a benchmark for jurisdictions around the world with one of the toughest regulations targeting Big Tech. The law forces tech giants from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok to stop minors logging in or face fines of up to AUD 49.5 million ($32 million). A trial of methods to enforce it will start in January with the ban to take effect in a year. The Social Media Minimum Age Bill sets Australia up as a test case for a growing number of governments that have legislated or said they plan to legislate an age restriction on social media amid concern about its mental health impact on young people.