Indonesia to push social media protections ahead of age-limit law

Indonesia will impose interim child protection guidelines on social media companies, a senior communications ministry official said.

Indonesia will impose interim child protection guidelines on social media companies while the government carves out a law to set a minimum age for users of the platforms, a senior communications ministry official said on Wednesday.

On Monday, communications minister Meutya Hafid said the government planned to issue a regulation to set a minimum age for social media users, after discussing the proposal to protect children online with President Prabowo Subianto.

The plan 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, owned by China's ByteDance, if they failed to prevent children from accessing their platforms.

"What the minister means is that the government is headed for the direction of a stronger regulation on age limit, which is through the formation of a law," Alexander Sabar, a senior official at the communications and digital ministry, told Reuters.

In the meantime, the government will issue a regulation for digital platforms, including social media companies, to adhere to child protection guidelines, he said, without providing details.

"The emphasis for the government regulation is child protection -- how they are protected from physical, mental, or moral perils," he said, adding the regulation would not totally limit children's access to social media.

Meta and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.