On Saturday, Indonesia started enforcing a sweeping ban on social media for kids under 16. According to the Associated Press, the law is expressly aimed at preventing youths 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, the AP says.
It’s not a stretch to say this is far and away the most consequential ban of its type so far.
Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world, has an estimated 288 million people—and about 250 million of those are “mobile internet users” according to Statistia. If one fourth of the country is under 16 (and that’s a conservative estimate since about one fourth of the country was under 14 as of 2023), this law would directly impact 72 million people—which would be about 0.89% of the global population. Australia, famous for being the first country to pass a similar ban, has an estimated total population of 27.5 million across all ages.
Indonesia had already signaled that this ban was coming, announcing it at the beginning of this month. The government of Indonesia says it’s being phased in, rather than enforced wholesale all at once, the AP notes. However, Indonesian Minister of Digital Affairs Meutya Hafid told the AP, “There will be no compromise on compliance, and every business entity operating in Indonesia is required to comply with Indonesian law.”
At a press conference, Hafid said in Indonesian (translated by Gizmodo with YouTube’s auto-translation feature) that there would be a one-year transition period before failure to comply would be penalized.
Just last month, Indonesia lifted a nationwide ban on Grok, the chatbot from xAI, which is attached to Elon Musk’s X social media platform and was in the midst of a scandal after it created deepfake photos of non-consenting underage people with near-nudity or other sexual content. In January, Hafid explained the ban this way: “The government views the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the security of citizens in the digital space.”
The AP quoted Hafid yesterday as saying the rollout of a sweeping ban “is certainly a task. But we must take steps to save our children,” adding, “It’s not easy. Nevertheless, we must see it through.”
