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Guidance still unclear on Indonesia’s under-16 social media rules
Indonesia will start restricting under-16s from using Roblox from 28 March 2026, under rules the government says are meant to curb cyberbullying and addiction.
The communications ministry has also flagged X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok as high-risk, and a new decree says these platforms must adjust minimum age requirements, deactivate underage accounts, and run their own risk assessments.
Officials have given few details on how account deactivation or age checks will work, and a Monash University social media expert said the technical guidance remains unclear.
As the March 28 deadline approaches, neither parents nor children know what will happen—whether all under-16 users will have their accounts automatically deactivated or whether there will be a new verification process.
Roblox said it will add content and communication controls for Indonesian users under 16, while Google backed a risk-based approach and warned removing under-16 accounts could widen an “educational divide.”
Analysts said enforcement will be complicated, even as internet penetration hit 80.7% in 2025 and 87.8% for Gen Z users aged 13 to 28.
🔗 Source: Reuters
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
The ban follows a pattern of digital intervention and specific safety crises
- The government called a “digital emergency,” saying parents “no longer have to fight alone against the giant of algorithms,” referring to recommendation systems in social media and games 1.
- A 2023 UNICEF report found that about half of 510 Indonesian children surveyed had seen sexual images on social media 2.
- Indonesia has blocked platforms including OnlyFans (an adult subscription content site) and Pornhub (an adult video site), using content concerns as the basis 2.
- Roblox faced a temporary block in November 2024 by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology over worries about gambling plus other harmful content 3.
New rules put a fast-growing local creator economy at risk
- The regulation could undercut a creator scene that depends on younger users.
- Since 2019, Roblox has added an estimated $8.2 million to Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP), while the local creator base grew 176% from late 2022 to late 2024 3.
- Young adults drive much of the work, with 75% of revenue-generating creators aged 18 to 34, which supports an estimated 310 jobs 3.
- It may also shrink an informal training route since 54% of creators said a Roblox portfolio helped them land job offers or new business opportunities 3.
