On Saturday, Indonesia began a broad ban on social media for children under the age of 16. According to the Associated Pressthe law is expressly aimed at preventing young people from encountering “pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and addiction” online. Affected platforms are Roblox, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and video chat platform. It is used in Southeast Asia It’s called Bigo Live, AP says.
It is not difficult to say that this is the most effective ban ever.
One in Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world It is estimated that there are 288 million people-and about 250 million of them are “mobile internet users” According to statistics. If a quarter of the country is under 16 (and this is a conservative estimate since approx By 2023, a quarter of the country’s population will be under 14 years of age), this law will directly affect 72 million people, which is about 0.89% of the world’s population. Australia, famous for being the first country to pass a similar ban, has a total population of approx 27.5 million at all ages.
Indonesia has already announced that this ban is coming earlier this month. AP notes that the Indonesian government has said it is being implemented in stages rather than wholesale all at once. However, Indonesia’s Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid told the AP that “there will be no compromise on compliance and every business entity operating in Indonesia must comply with Indonesian laws.”
At the press conferenceHafid said in Indonesian (translated by Gizmodo with YouTube’s automatic translation feature) that there will be a one-year transition period before non-compliance is penalized.
Last month, Indonesia lifted the nationwide ban Grok, a chatbot from xAI, is at the center of a scandal after it created deeply fake photos of non-consensual minors who joined Elon Musk’s X social media platform, showing nudity or other sexual content. Hafid in January this is how he explained the ban: “The government views the practice of unofficial sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and security of citizens in the digital space.”
AP quoted Hafid yesterday as saying that imposing a broad ban “is certainly a task. But we have to take steps to save our children,” adding: “It’s not easy. Nevertheless, we have to see it through.”
