Indonesia has begun implementing a new government regulation that bans children younger than 16 from access to digital platforms in an effort to protect minors from cyberbullying, digital addiction and pornography.

It became the first country in Southeast Asia to ban children from having accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox. It follows measures that Australia took last year in a world-first social media ban for children as part of a push for families to take back power from tech giants and protect their teens.

Indonesia has said that the implementation of the restrictions would be carried out gradually, until all platforms comply with the measure.

The regulation affects approximately 70 million children in Indonesia, which has a total population of 280 million people.

Indonesia’s Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid acknowledged that implementing the new regulation — even gradually as planned — will be difficult. Getting digital platforms to comply and then making them report deactivations of under-16 accounts is difficult.

Maura Munthe, a 13-year-old who spends roughly four hours a day on her phone on social media, including playing games on Roblox with her friends, said she feels “kind of 50-50” about the new government policy but mostly agrees with it.

Her peers in school, she says, worry they will miss out on all the fun and entertainment they now have access to.

“There are always other games on my phone, not only the online ones,” she said. ”I will likely play more games alone or just hang out with my friends.”

Munthe’s mother, Leni Sinuraya, 47, said she has for years trusted her daughter to use her phone wisely, both when studying and when playing online games. Still, she sees the government’s move as good for all children in Indonesia.

Parents, she says, have lost control — and social media platforms have taken over.

“Nowadays, when we see kids sitting in a restaurant, they have a phone right in front of them. It’s clear that they’re addicted,” Sinuraya said. “They won’t eat unless they’re given a phone, and they throw a tantrum if they aren’t.”

“Mealtime is supposed to be a time for us to chat with the people around us,” she added.

Based in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, Diena Haryana founded Semai Jiwa Amini foundation — also known as SEJIWA, a nonprofit that works on online child safety and protection.

According to Haryana, studies have shown that children’s use of social media can impact their mental health and trigger anxiety and depression.

But, she says, digital platforms also offer advantages and open up a whole realm of learning. Her foundation has tried to get parents and communities to work together on providing guidance and supervision for children in the online world.

Restrictions on social media access for children under 16 first began in December in Australia, where social media companies revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children.

Some other countries — including Spain, France and the United Kingdom — are also taking or considering measures to restrict children’s access to social media amid growing concern that they are being harmed by exposure to unregulated social media content.

印度尼西亚已开始实施一项新的政府法规，禁止16岁以下儿童访问数字平台，旨在保护未成年人免受网络欺凌、数字成瘾和色情内容的侵害。

印尼成为东南亚首个禁止儿童在YouTube、TikTok、脸书、Instagram、Threads、X、Bigo Live和Roblox等平台开设账户的国家。此前，澳大利亚去年率先采取了全球首例未成年人社交媒体禁令，作为推动家庭从科技巨头手中夺回控制权、保护青少年的一部分。

印度尼西亚表示，相关限制措施将分阶段实施，直至所有平台都遵守该规定。

这项法规将影响印尼约7000万儿童，印尼总人口为2.8亿。

印尼通讯与数字事务部长梅蒂亚·哈菲德承认，即便按计划分阶段实施，新规执行起来也并非易事。让数字平台配合执行，并让它们报告16岁以下账户的注销情况，确实存在困难。

13岁的玛乌拉·蒙瑟每天大约花四个小时用手机刷社交媒体，包括和朋友一起玩Roblox游戏。对于这项新政，她喜忧参半，但基本赞同。

她说，学校的同学们担心会失去社交媒体带来的乐趣。

“我手机里也有很多线下游戏，”她说。“我可能会更多一个人玩游戏，或者干脆和朋友出去玩。”

47岁的西努拉娅说，多年来她一直相信女儿能明智地使用手机，无论是学习还是玩游戏。不过，她仍然认为该新政对印尼所有孩子都有好处。

她说，家长们已经失去了控制 — 而社交媒体平台已经取而代之。

“如今，我们经常看到孩子们在餐厅里玩手机。显然他们上瘾了，”西努拉娅说。“不给他们手机，他们就不吃饭，甚至会发脾气。”

“吃饭时间本应是我们与身边人聊天的时刻，”她补充道。

迪埃娜·哈里扬纳居住在印尼首都雅加达，她创办了Semai Jiwa Amini基金会（简称SEJIWA），这是一个致力于儿童网络安全和保护的非营利组织。

据哈里扬纳称，研究表明，儿童使用社交媒体会影响他们的心理健康，引发焦虑和抑郁。

但她也表示，数字平台也有其优势，并开辟了广阔的学习领域。她的基金会一直试图让家长和社区共同努力，在儿童上网方面提供引导和监督。

对16岁以下儿童访问社交媒体的限制最早于去年12月在澳大利亚实施，当时社交媒体公司取消了约470万个被认定为儿童账户的访问权限。

包括西班牙、法国和英国在内的其他一些国家也在采取或考虑采取措施限制儿童访问社交媒体，因为人们越来越担心儿童会因接触不受监管的社交媒体内容而受到伤害。

(Translated by DeepSeek)