Indonesian Communications Minister Metuya Hafid said on Tuesday that her country will impose a minimum age for social media users, similar to what Australia has done.
Hafid did not specify whether Indonesia would set a minimum age of 16, as Australia did, or not. Several other countries, including the United States, have imposed restrictions on social media use and considered outright bans for children, but a younger age of 12 or 13 is usually involved.
“We discussed how to protect children in digital space. The president said to carry on with this plan. He is very supportive on how this kind of child protection will be done in our digital space,” Hafid said in a video posted to the YouTube account of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
“This is still in the early stages. We want to conduct a comprehensive study first. For now, to bridge the gap to a more robust regulation, the government will issue a governmental regulation. If further measures require parliamentary involvement to strengthen child protection, we will prepare for that as well,” she said.
President Subianto’s signature initiative to date has been a “free nutritious meal” program launched last week to address malnutrition among 21.5 percent of Indonesia’s children.
“Too many of our brothers and sisters are below the poverty line, too many of our children go to school without breakfast and do not have clothes for school,” Subianto said in his October inaugural speech.
Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Sufmi Dasco Ahmad said on Tuesday the legislature would consider the government’s plan for a social media ban on children, and would study the implementation of such restrictions in other countries.
The House, known as the DPR-RI by its Indonesian acronym, has a set of numbered committees specialized in various areas of legislation. Dave Laksono, deputy chair of Commission I – the Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Information Committee – said the government must step in to protect children from the “negative impact” of social media.
“We should not allow our children to grow based on the ideas or content that does not fit their age and can potentially damage their mindset and have a negative impact on their morals,” Laksono said.
Imran Pambudi, director of mental health for the Indonesian Health Ministry, told the Kathmandu Post it would take “at least three years” to study the issue and formulate rules for a social media ban. Australia’s social media ban for children under 16 will go into effect at the end of 2025.
According to the Indonesian Internet Service Providers’ Association, 79.5 percent of the nation’s 280 million people now have access to the Internet, including 48 percent of its children. The rate of online activity rises to 87 percent for the age cohort from 12 to 27, the prime social media group.
The Indonesia National Adolescent Mental Health survey in 2023 found that almost 40 percent of the nation’s teenagers had experienced a mental health issue during that year, most commonly feelings of anxiety. Only 2.6 percent of those teenagers said they had received counseling.
One of the experts who conducted the study, public health professor Siswanto Agus Wilopo of Gadjah Mada University, told the Kathmandu Post that social media was probably a factor in rising anxiety levels among young people, particularly through “cyberbullying and negative content on social media.”
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