Indonesia mulls Australian-style social media ban for kids

An Indonesian ban on social media for children has the support of senior officials from the country’s largest and most moderate Muslim organisation, as regulators warn online gaming ads are being deliberately designed to appeal to kids.

Indonesia is looking at introducing its own social media laws following Australia’s ban on children under 16.

The Indonesian government is considering following Australia’s lead and implementing its own social media ban for children under 16 amid a shocking rise in the number of children and teenagers getting sucked into online gambling.

Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Abdul Mu’ti told The Australian his government had taken note of the new Australian laws and was looking into whether similar legislation could be introduced in Indonesia, a country with some of the highest social media use in the world.

“We are currently studying the possibility,” Mr Mu’ti said.

The Australian parliament passed a world-first ban on social media for children under 16 last month that is due to take effect in late 2025, though live testing with Australian teenagers will begin in coming months.

The law will make platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram ­liable for fines of up to $50m for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from having an account.

Senior officials from Indonesia’s largest and most moderate Muslim organisation, Nahdlatul Ulama, have been pushing for ­Indonesia to introduce similar legislation aimed at addressing the potentially toxic and damaging impact of online platforms on children.

NU Yogyakarta chairman Ahmad Zuhdi Muhdlor this week appealed to the government to take measures to limit young Indonesians’ exposure to campaigns or advertisements for online gambling.

“This needs to be done with regulations, not just recommendations. If it’s a national regulation, sanctions can be imposed on violators,” Mr Zuhdi said.

Data released by the country’s Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre in July found some 80,000 children under 10 years old and 440,000 teenagers aged 10 to 20 in Indonesia were ­either engaging in, or exposed to, online gambling. The habit has become a nationwide concern, with gambling addiction linked to rising incidences of self-destructive and criminal behaviour in adults, teenagers and younger children.

The Indonesian Child Protection Commission, a government-sanctioned independent agency, has warned online gambling games and advertisements on social media were being “designed with attractive themes and graphics to appeal to children”.

Mr Zuhdi said social media was destroying the moral and mental health of the community. “Once it gets into the child’s mind, it’s very hard to correct,” he said.

Governments around the world are keenly watching Australia’s social experiment as they too wrestle with the impacts of social media on children, and how to put the genie back in the bottle.

In October, Norway announced it was raising the minimum age at which kids could access social media from 13 to 15, while the French government is currently testing a smartphone ban for under-15s in some schools.

Parents across Britain and Europe have been signing up in droves to online pledges not to buy smartphones for children younger than 12 or 13, while US campaigns such as Wait Until 8th (grade) are helping parents delay their kids’ access to social media and phones.

In Indonesia, however, the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) has urged caution on introducing a social media ban in Indonesia where mandatory use of biometrics or national IDs has raised concerns about potential misuse.

“For instance, if I’m required to submit my ID to register on social media, there’s no guarantee it won’t be abused for surveillance purposes,” SAFEnet executive director Nenden Sekar Arum said.

“The trend in Indonesia has shown that many regulations tend to suppress freedom of expression. This raises suspicions that such policies might also be misused.”

The government should focus instead on enhancing digital literacy and equipping parents with the tools to monitor their children effectively, SAFEnet argues.