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After Australia, Indonesia mulls minimum age criteria for social media use

“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,” she added.

Indonesia President Republic DayIndonesian President Prabowo Subianto. File Photo/AP

Indonesia is planning to introduce a regulation setting a minimum age for social media users, according to announcements by the country’s communications minister Meutya Hafid on Monday. The move is aimed at protecting “children in digital space”.

The initiative follows Australia’s recent decision to ban children under 16 from accessing social media, with penalties for tech giants, including Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook, and TikTok, if they fail to prevent children from using their platforms.

However, minister Hafid did not specify any proposed minimum age for social media use in Indonesia. Her comments came after discussing the plan with President Prabowo Subianto.

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“We discussed how to protect children in digital space,” she said in a video uploaded to the YouTube channel of the president’s office.

“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,” she added.

Indonesia, a nation of approximately 280 million people, had an internet penetration rate of 79.5 per cent last year, according to a survey of 8,700 people by the Indonesian Internet Service Providers’ Association.

The survey revealed that 48 per cent of children under the age of 12 had internet access, with some using platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Among “Gen Z” users, aged 12 to 27, internet penetration was found to be 87 per cent.

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