Medan, Indonesia – Because the mom of an 18-month-old daughter, Laila Lubis is busy experiencing the challenges and joys of latest motherhood.
Although her daughter solely not too long ago uttered her first phrases, Lubis is already fascinated with how the web and social media may form her growth lengthy into the long run.
“I’ll by no means give a cell phone to my baby,” Lubis, who works as a humanitarian employee in Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra, instructed Al Jazeera.
“I can’t permit my daughter to make use of a cell phone for so long as I can. Perhaps when my baby is round six years outdated, I’ll take into consideration homeschooling her for kindergarten, so she should have entry to the web for that.”
Throughout Indonesia, numerous households are having related discussions amongst themselves as the federal government prepares to introduce a minimal age for utilizing social media.
Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Meutya Hafid first floated the plans final month, as a part of an effort to spice up baby safety insurance policies within the archipelago of some 280 million individuals.
Although the federal government has but to announce a selected age restrict, officers have careworn the necessity for stronger regulation to guard minors from “bodily, psychological, or ethical perils”.
Indonesia’s bid comes on the heels of an identical effort in neighbouring Australia, which in November turned the primary nation to introduce a ban on under-16s from accessing social media.
Below Australian laws, social media platforms resembling Fb, TikTok and Instagram face fines of as much as $32m in the event that they fail to implement the age necessities.
Prematurely of the introduction of its regulation, Jakarta has introduced its intention to impose interim baby safety tips on social media firms whereas the federal government drafts laws.
Lubis mentioned whereas the ban has but to come back to fruition, she believes it’s optimistic that the federal government has kickstarted dialogue about holding youngsters secure on-line.
“I consider that there are extra negatives fairly than positives for kids utilizing social media and the web, particularly very younger youngsters,” she mentioned.
The potential ban is the newest in a collection of efforts by the Indonesian authorities to rein in Large Tech corporations.
In October, Indonesian authorities banned gross sales of Apple’s iPhone 16 and the Google Pixel over the businesses’ failure to adjust to laws mandating that smartphones supply not less than 40 % of their components regionally.
In 2022, the federal government threatened to dam Google, Fb, Twitter and Instagram if they didn’t register with the Ministry of Communication, although the businesses had been spared from the ban after signing up earlier than the deadline.
Authorities additionally blocked well-liked streaming platform Netflix from 2016 to 2020 amid fears that it promoted “inappropriate content material”, together with pornography, and briefly blocked video-sharing platform TikTok in 2018.
“In a approach, the difficulty does mirror a broader supply of pressure between Jakarta and Large Tech, and the federal government’s push for higher company accountability in sustaining a safe data house for Indonesians,” Gatra Priyandita, a senior analyst in cyber-technology and safety on the Australian Strategic Coverage Institute, instructed Al Jazeera.
“By imposing age limits on social media use, the burden of enforcement shifts to tech firms, making them immediately chargeable for compliance and potential fallout,” Priyandita mentioned, including that discussions about proscribing social media have swirled in Indonesia for years, though critical efforts have gained traction solely not too long ago.
“Authorities have primarily targeted on baby exploitation, radical narratives, and different dangerous content material,” he mentioned.
Whereas Australia’s laws broke new floor, Indonesia’s potential ban would have an effect on much more individuals.
About 139 million Indonesians use social media and virtually half of kids beneath the age of 12 entry platforms resembling TikTok, Instagram and Fb, in keeping with the Indonesia Web Service Supplier Affiliation.
Priyandita mentioned Gen Z customers aged 12 to 27 have the very best web utilization fee in Indonesia, at 87 %, with most of them energetic on TikTok and Instagram – each of which boast greater than 110 million customers within the nation.
“Gen Alpha [people born after 2010] are prone to be extremely proactive customers of social media as effectively. Their departure from these platforms will imply that social media could also be set to lose enormous numbers of followers,” he mentioned.
As in Australia, the plans to implement a minimal age have additionally raised issues about privateness and the potential misuse of consumer knowledge.
“Implementing minimal age necessities on social media platforms would necessitate consumer identification, resembling driver’s licences or nationwide IDs. This poses vital privateness dangers, notably for platforms that encourage anonymity, like Reddit, as delicate knowledge could possibly be breached or bought,” Priyandita mentioned.
“One various is for the federal government to retailer consumer knowledge whereas platforms merely confirm IDs with out retaining private data. Nonetheless, digital ID methods carry their very own safety vulnerabilities, as they continue to be prone to knowledge breaches and misuse.”
Some Indonesians query the necessity for presidency intervention to maintain minors away from well-liked platforms.
Adi Sarwono, a social employee who runs the Busa Pustaka literacy programme for underprivileged youngsters in Lampung, Sumatra, mentioned social media use amongst younger individuals has each optimistic and adverse features.
“The positives embody growing youngsters’s creativity and their communication abilities. Nonetheless, there are adverse issues that social media creates resembling affecting focus, inflicting extreme nervousness, lack of self-confidence, and even sleep problems and bullying,” Sarwono instructed Al Jazeera.
Attempting to eradicate or restrict social media use amongst youngsters could also be tough to attain in an age the place most individuals are on-line, Sarwono mentioned.
“Technological progress just isn’t one thing that may be resisted, however it may be used correctly. There’s a want to regulate youngsters’s entry to social media and the timing of once they use it,” he mentioned.
“There additionally must be house to make sure youngsters are monitored when utilizing social media.”
