Indonesia to Ban YouTube, TikTok, Other Social Media Apps for Children Under 16
Indonesia will ban youth from social media apps, saying it will prevent anyone under the age of 16 from having accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, and Roblox, according to an Associated Press report. The restrictions will begin on March 28 and continue until all platforms comply with the decision, the government said.
Indonesia’s Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs Meutya Hafid said there were “clear” reasons for the ban.
“Our children face real threats,” Hafid said. “From exposure to pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud, and most importantly, addiction. The government exists so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giant of algorithms.”
After a surprise inspection earlier this week of Meta Platforms’ office in Jakarta, the country’s capital, government officials said Meta was not fully compliant with national restrictions on content moderation, disinformation and online gambling on its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms, AP reported.
A wave of world limits
A number of other countries around the world — including the US, Canada, Germany and Brazil — have banned or are considering banning social media for children of certain ages. The reason is that children can be exposed to pornography or other content that depicts sex, as well as depictions of violence.
Many governments and online safety groups argue that addictive algorithms can harm young, developing brains, and that being on social media too young and too often can cause depression, anxiety and a disconnection from reality.
December, Australia banned anyone under the age of 16 from having accounts TikTokFacebook, InstagramThreads, X, Snapchat, YouTube, RedditKick and Twitch. Indonesia has a lot of work to do to match this. While Australia has just 27 million people, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world at 286 million — a quarter of whom are 14 and under.
In February, Spain has said it will ban anyone under the age of 16 by using messaging apps like TikTokInstagram and X. France also wants to ban children under 15 from social media, which President Emmanuel Macron blames for youth violence, while the United Kingdom is also including a ban on under-16s.
In terms of restricting children’s access to social media in the US, there are a number of state laws. Florida has partial testing for children under 14, while California and New York are trying to regulate “addictive foods.” Utah, Texas, and Arkansas have tried to require parental consent for children to have social media accounts.
Are you violating children’s rights?
Many pushed back against an outright ban, saying that forcing people to prove their age would lead to the provision of personal information and documents and ” usher in an era of mass surveillance,” as writer Taylor Lorenz put it.
David Greene, senior adviser to the digital privacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the EFF was “deeply concerned” about how quickly internet restrictions are spreading around the world and how uncritically they are being accepted.
These types of restrictions — whether through blanket bans or parental consent laws — violate young people’s rights, Greene told CNET. “Even if they are under 18, or under 16, children have the right to receive information, to speak and to associate,” he said.
Greene also said that forcing people to prove their age threatens online privacy, as users are required to go through a verification process.
“It creates a kind of collection of personal data, and if it’s biometric, that can be very personal and intimate,” Greene said. “You threaten anonymity, and for some people, their lives or safety will be threatened if they have to attach their name to what they say or the type of information they access.”
Prioritizing children’s safety?
Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of online child protection organization Enough Is Enough, applauded the “proactive action” Indonesia and other countries are taking to ban children under 16 from using social media.
“This ban should be an incentive for social media and other platforms to use safe design technology and automated parental control tools before rushing to market products that could be harmful to children and young people,” said Hughes.
Hughes said that by failing to do the right thing from the start, “Big Tech has dug itself a hole.”
Hughes pointed out that the most successful social networking sites in the US — Facebook and MySpace — were originally designed for college-age students and older users.
“Now that millions of dollars in advertising dollars are at stake in these countries that want to ban it, maybe now these tech companies will prioritize children’s online safety,” Hughes said.
Working around internet bans
Limits can be very difficult to use, as most children quickly learn how to achieve them. VPNs, which are very popular, allow users to create a secure, encrypted internet connection that hides their true location.
Anyone with some technical knowledge can try to circumvent web restrictions in their home country — such as social media bans — by making it seem like they live in a different country that doesn’t.
But Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said VPNs are not bulletproof for circumventing Internet restrictions.
“VPNs can work against some types of restrictions, but not all,” Klosowski told CNET in a previous interview. “Of course it depends on the type of technology used for surveillance and at what level. Some governments block access to VPNs.”
For governments, parents and tech companies alike, the debate over protecting children online is far from settled.
