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 lately uttered her first phrases, Lubis is already fascinated about how the web and social media may form her improvement lengthy into the long run.
“I’ll by no means give a cell phone to my youngster,” Lubis, who works as a humanitarian employee in Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra, informed Al Jazeera.
“I cannot permit my daughter to make use of a cell phone for so long as I can. Perhaps when my youngster 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 youngster safety insurance policies within the archipelago of some 280 million individuals.
Although the federal government has but to announce a particular age restrict, officers have pressured 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 grew to become the primary nation to introduce a ban on under-16s from accessing social media.
Beneath Australian laws, social media platforms comparable 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 youngster safety pointers on social media corporations 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 maintaining kids secure on-line.
“I imagine that there are extra negatives reasonably than positives for kids utilizing social media and the web, particularly very younger kids,” she stated.
The potential ban is the most recent in a collection 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 rules 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 in style 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 stress between Jakarta and Huge Tech, and the federal government’s push for higher company accountability in sustaining a safe info area for Indonesians,” Gatra Priyandita, a senior analyst in cyber-technology and safety on the Australian Strategic Coverage Institute, informed Al Jazeera.
“By imposing age limits on social media use, the burden of enforcement shifts to tech corporations, making them instantly chargeable for compliance and potential fallout,” Priyandita stated, including that discussions about proscribing social media have swirled in Indonesia for years, though critical efforts have gained traction solely lately.
“Authorities have primarily centered on youngster 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 way more individuals.
About 139 million Indonesians use social media and nearly half of kids under the age of 12 entry platforms comparable to TikTok, Instagram and Fb, in line with 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 properly. Their departure from these platforms will imply that social media could also be set to lose large numbers of followers,” he stated.
As in Australia, the plans to implement a minimal age have additionally raised considerations about privateness and the potential misuse of person knowledge.
“Implementing minimal age necessities on social media platforms would necessitate person identification, comparable to driver’s licences or nationwide IDs. This poses important privateness dangers, significantly for platforms that encourage anonymity, like Reddit, as delicate knowledge could possibly be breached or bought,” Priyandita stated.
“One various is for the federal government to retailer person knowledge whereas platforms merely confirm IDs with out retaining private info. Nevertheless, digital ID programs carry their very own safety vulnerabilities, as they continue to be inclined to knowledge breaches and misuse.”
Some Indonesians query the necessity for presidency intervention to maintain minors away from in style platforms.
Adi Sarwono, a social employee who runs the Busa Pustaka literacy programme for underprivileged kids in Lampung, Sumatra, stated social media use amongst younger individuals has each optimistic and detrimental elements.
“The positives embrace creating kids’s creativity and their communication expertise. Nevertheless, there are detrimental issues that social media creates comparable to affecting focus, inflicting extreme anxiousness, lack of self-confidence, and even sleep problems and bullying,” Sarwono informed Al Jazeera.
Making an attempt to eradicate or restrict social media use amongst kids could also be tough to attain in an age the place most individuals are on-line, Sarwono stated.
“Technological progress is just not one thing that may be resisted, however it may be used properly. There’s a want to manage kids’s entry to social media and the timing of once they use it,” he stated.
“There additionally must be area to make sure kids are monitored when utilizing social media.”
