Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction.
“Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said.
“The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said.
Photo: DPA via AP
The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their compliance obligations,” she added.
TikTok Indonesia and Google Indonesia did not respond to requests for comment.
An EU expert group began work this week on a similar social media ban for children after Australia required TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other sites in December last year to remove accounts held by under-16s.
Brussels said it is keeping a close eye on how successful the Australian ban proves to be, with legal challenges already filed against it.
France, Denmark, Greece and Spain have been pushing for similar action at EU level, and India has been considering a teen social media ban of its own.
The government understood the new regulation “may cause some initial inconvenience” for users in Indonesia, but “we believe that this is the best step the government must take in the midst of a digital emergency,” Meutya said.
“We are taking this step to reclaim the sovereignty of our children’s future. We want technology to humanize humans, not sacrifice our children’s childhood,” she said.
YouTube said it was looking into the ban.
“We are reviewing the new regulation to ensure it supports this goal, empowers parents and preserves access to learning for millions of Indonesians,” a YouTube spokesperson said.
“We will continue to engage constructively with the government and remain committed to protecting youth in the digital world, not from it,” they added.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS