With the move, begun on Saturday, Indonesia became the first country in Southeast Asia to ban children from having accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox.
It follows measures that Australia took in 2025 in a world-first social media ban for children as part of a push for families to take back power from tech giants and protect their teens.
Indonesia has said the implementation of the restrictions would be carried out gradually, until all platforms comply with the measure.
In announcing the new regulation earlier in March, Indonesia's Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said it would apply to around 70 million children in Indonesia — a country with a population of about 280 million.
Hafid said high-risk digital platforms are identified by factors such as how easy it is for children to become exposed to strangers, potential predators and harmful content in general, as well as the levels of risk of exploitation and data security scams.
But she acknowledged that implementing the new regulation — even gradually as planned — will be difficult. Getting digital platforms to comply and then making them report deactivations of under-16 accounts is difficult.
"This is certainly a task. But we must take steps to save our children," Hafid said.
"It's not easy. Nevertheless, we must see it through."
So far, few platforms have reacted to Indonesia's new regulation.
Elon Musk's X on its Indonesia Online Safety Information page gives 16 as the minimum age required for users in the country.
"It's not our choice - it's what Indonesian law requires," the page says.
Google-owned YouTube said it supports the Indonesian government's effort to create an effective, risk-based framework that addresses online harms while preserving access to information and digital opportunity.
"We are ready to engage under the regulation's self-assessment approach to demonstrate our long-standing safety rigour," it said.
Restrictions on social media access for children under 16 first began in December in Australia, where social media companies revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children.
Some other countries — including Spain, France and the United Kingdom — are also taking or considering measures to restrict children's access to social media amid growing concern that they are being harmed by exposure to unregulated social media content.
