Medan, Indonesia – Because the mom of an 18-month-old daughter, Laila Lubis is busy experiencing the challenges and joys of recent motherhood.
Although her daughter solely lately uttered her first phrases, Lubis is already occupied with how the web and social media might form her improvement lengthy into the long run.
“I’ll by no means give a cell phone to my little one,” Lubis, who works as a humanitarian employee in Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra, instructed Al Jazeera.
“I cannot enable my daughter to make use of a cell phone for so long as I can. Perhaps when my little one is round six years previous, I’ll take into consideration homeschooling her for kindergarten, so she must 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 little one safety insurance policies within the archipelago of some 280 million folks.
Although the federal government has but to announce a particular age restrict, officers have confused the necessity for stronger regulation to guard minors from “bodily, psychological, or ethical perils”.
Indonesia’s bid comes on the heels of the same effort in neighbouring Australia, which in November turned the primary nation to introduce a ban on under-16s from accessing social media.
Beneath Australian laws, social media platforms akin to Fb, TikTok and Instagram face fines of as much as $32m in the event that they fail to implement the age necessities.
Upfront of the introduction of its legislation, Jakarta has introduced its intention to impose interim little one safety pointers on social media firms whereas the federal government drafts laws.
Lubis stated 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 relatively than positives for youngsters utilizing social media and the web, particularly very younger youngsters,” she stated.
The potential ban is the most recent in a sequence of efforts by the Indonesian authorities to rein in Huge Tech companies.
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 a minimum of 40 p.c of their elements domestically.
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 have been spared from the ban after signing up earlier than the deadline.
Authorities additionally blocked common 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 manner, the problem does mirror a broader supply of pressure between Jakarta and Huge Tech, and the federal government’s push for better company accountability in sustaining a safe data area 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 answerable for compliance and potential fallout,” Priyandita stated, including that discussions about proscribing social media have swirled in Indonesia for years, though severe efforts have gained traction solely lately.
“Authorities have primarily targeted on little one exploitation, radical narratives, and different dangerous content material,” he stated.
Whereas Australia’s laws broke new floor, Indonesia’s potential ban would have an effect on much more folks.
About 139 million Indonesians use social media and virtually half of youngsters beneath the age of 12 entry platforms akin to TikTok, Instagram and Fb, based on the Indonesia Web Service Supplier Affiliation.
Priyandita stated Gen Z customers aged 12 to 27 have the best web utilization charge in Indonesia, at 87 p.c, with most of them lively on TikTok and Instagram – each of which boast greater than 110 million customers within the nation.
“Gen Alpha [people born after 2010] are more likely 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 stated.
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, akin to driver’s licences or nationwide IDs. This poses vital privateness dangers, significantly for platforms that encourage anonymity, like Reddit, as delicate knowledge might be breached or offered,” Priyandita stated.
“One different 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 vulnerable to knowledge breaches and misuse.”
Some Indonesians query the necessity for presidency intervention to maintain minors away from common platforms.
Adi Sarwono, a social employee who runs the Busa Pustaka literacy programme for underprivileged youngsters in Lampung, Sumatra, stated social media use amongst younger folks has each optimistic and destructive facets.
“The positives embrace creating youngsters’s creativity and their communication abilities. Nonetheless, there are destructive issues that social media creates akin to affecting focus, inflicting extreme nervousness, lack of self-confidence, and even sleep issues 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 stated.
“Technological progress isn’t one thing that may be resisted, however it may be used correctly. There’s a want to manage youngsters’s entry to social media and the timing of once they use it,” he stated.
“There additionally must be area to make sure youngsters are monitored when utilizing social media.”
