Child safety regulations have prompted the tech platforms to take down accounts belonging to children.
Social media platforms TikTok and YouTube have deactivated millions of accounts in Indonesia.
TikTok, owned by ByteDance, deactivated 4.1 million accounts, and Google-owned YouTube has deactivated 600,000. The Indonesian Communications and Digital Ministry confirmed that it wanted other platforms to follow suit.
The de-activations are due to a newly issued regulation in the country which requires social media companies with platforms that are deemed “high risk” to deactivate accounts owned by kids under 16 – which includes Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and Roblox.
“We’re not just delaying a child’s access, but we want behaviours from platforms to change, too,” Meutya said on Thursday, adding that the ministry is currently checking self-assessment reports by the companies, Reuters reports.
The Indonesian government has confirmed that this is aimed at reducing the risk of addiction and cyberbullying – as research has come out that alleges the social media platforms risked user safety to fuel their algorithms.
Australia confirms tougher enforcement for social media ban
At the same time, the Australian government has vowed to bolster its social media ban for under 16s. The breakthrough legislation has been criticised for weak enforcement, but has sparked a number of other countries to implement similar measures, such as the UK and Greece.
The Australian government is preparing legal action against sites that aren’t following the restrictions, and it plans to stress-test the platforms including Instagram and YouTube, on how easy it is for under-16s to create an account.
Reports suggest that as much as 80% of Australian children have been able to circumvent the measures. This has led to researchers determining that there is “little evidence” that the restrictions have had “any substantive effects” on children’s use of social media.
This puts advertisers in a difficult position. If children are not legally allowed to access social media, then advertisers lose a section of their audience and viewership.
However, if children are accessing the sites despite the ban, then age-appropriate ads can’t be guaranteed, leaving the children that do access the sites at risk of being exposed to harmful content not meant for their age ranges.
