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Indonesia is set to ban teenagers from using social media apps, indicating that it will prevent anyone under 16 from having accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. Associated Press report. The government said the restrictions will begin on March 28 and continue until all platforms comply with the ruling.
Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Affairs Mutya Hafid said there were “clear” reasons for the ban.
“Our children are increasingly facing real threats,” Hafeez said. “From exposure to pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud, and most importantly, addiction. The government is here so that parents don’t have to fight alone against the algorithmic giant.”
After a surprise inspection earlier this week of Meta Platforms’ office in Jakarta, the country’s capital, government officials said Meta had not fully complied with national restrictions on content moderation, misinformation and online gambling on its platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, the AP report said.
A wave of global restrictions
Dozens of other countries Around the world — including the United States, Canada, Germany and Brazil — have either banned or are considering banning social media for children of certain ages. The reason is that children can be exposed to pornography or other sexually explicit content, as well as depictions of violence.
Many governments and online safety groups claim that addictive algorithms can harm young people’s developing brains, and that being on social media too young and too often can cause depression, anxiety, and a disconnect from reality.
In December, Australia Ban anyone under 16 Having accounts on Tik TokFacebook , InstagramTopics, X, Snapchat, YouTube, Redditkick and twitch. Indonesia has a huge task ahead of it to match this. While Australia has a population of just 27 million, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world with 286 million people. A quarter of them are 14 years old or younger.
In February, Spain said it would ban anyone under 16 From using messaging applications such as Tik TokAnd Instagram and X. France also wants to ban children under 15 Of social media, where President Emmanuel Macron has blamed it for youth violence, and UK too Considering ban for under 16s.
As for restricting children’s access to social media in the United States, it is A mixture of state lawsA mixture of state laws. Florida has a partial ban for children under 14, and California and New York are trying to regulate “addictive nutrition.” Utah, Texas and Arkansas have tried to require parental consent for minors to have social media accounts.
Violating children’s rights?
Many oppose an outright ban, arguing that forcing people to prove their age would result in them having to provide sensitive personal data and documents and “enter an era of mass surveillance,” the author says. Taylor Lorenz says.
David Green, Senior Advisor at Digital Privacy Electronic Frontier FoundationThe EFF said it was “deeply concerned” about how quickly internet restrictions have spread globally and how uncritically they have been adopted.
Green told CNET that these types of restrictions — whether through outright bans or parental consent rules — violate young people’s rights. “Even if they are under 18 or under 16, children have the right to access information, to speak and to assemble,” he added.
Green also said that forcing people to prove their age puts online privacy at risk, as users are required to undergo a verification process.
“It creates a kind of collection of personal data, and if it’s biometric, that can be very personal and intimate,” Green said. “You are threatening anonymity, and for some people, their lives or safety would be threatened if they had to associate their names with what they say or the type of information they access.”
Prioritize child safety?
Donna Rice Hughes, President and CEO of Children’s Online Safety That’s enoughHe praised the “proactive step” taken by Indonesia and other countries to prevent children under 16 from using social media.
“This ban should be an incentive for social media and other platforms to implement safer technologies and default parental management tools before rushing to market with products that could pose a risk to children and teens,” Hughes said.
By failing to do the right thing from the start, “tech companies have dug themselves into a hole,” Hughes said.
Hughes noted that the first highly successful social media platforms in the United States — Facebook and MySpace — were originally designed for college-age students and older users.
“Now that millions of dollars in advertising revenue are at stake in these countries seeking bans, perhaps now these tech companies will prioritize children’s online safety,” Hughes said.
Work around online bans
Restraints can be very difficult to enforce, as is the case with many children quickly appearance How to get around them. VPNs, which are increasingly popular, allow users to create… Secure and encrypted internet connection Which hides their actual location.
A person with some technical experience can try to get around their country’s web restrictions — such as social media blocks — by showing that they live in a different country that doesn’t have these restrictions.
But VPNs are not bulletproof at circumventing internet restrictions, said Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy campaigner at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
“VPNs can be effective against certain types of restrictions, but not all,” Klosowski told CNET in a previous interview. “It really depends on what type of technology is used for censorship and at what level. Some governments block access to VPNs.”
For governments, parents and technology companies alike, the debate over how to protect children online is far from settled.