Seventy million children. Eight platforms. One very obvious question.

Indonesia on Saturday began enforcing a ban on social media accounts for anyone under 16, becoming the first country in Southeast Asia — and the first outside the West — to block minors from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, and Roblox.

The regulation, approved earlier this month, targets platforms the government classifies as “high-risk”: those where children can easily encounter strangers, predators, harmful content, and data scams. Communications and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said the rules apply to roughly 70 million children under 16 in a country of 280 million.

Hafid told reporters there was “no room for compromise regarding compliance.” She said X and Bigo Live have fully complied, TikTok has committed to deactivating under-16 accounts, and Roblox plans to offer an offline-only mode for users under 13. YouTube said it supports Indonesia’s “risk-based self-assessment approach” and warned that removing young users entirely would create a “knowledge divide.”

What the government has not explained is how any of this will actually work.

Hafid did not elaborate on age-verification technologies at her Friday briefing, according to the Jakarta Globe. Ika Idris, a social media expert at Monash University, called the policy “all concepts” and said “the technical guidance is still lacking.” Experts have noted that children can easily bypass restrictions using VPNs. Non-compliant platforms face fines and potential nationwide blocks.

Indonesia’s move follows Australia, which in December became the first country to restrict social media for under-16s, revoking roughly 4.7 million accounts. The UK’s upper house voted this week to pressure Prime Minister Keir Starmer into following suit. Germany, Spain, France, and Malaysia are considering similar measures.

The timing is sharp. This week, a US jury found Meta and YouTube liable for deliberately designing addictive products that harmed a young woman, ordering them to pay a combined $6 million in damages — a bellwether for hundreds of similar lawsuits.

Age-verification mandates are becoming the default. The enforcement gap remains enormous.

Sources