Indonesia summons Meta, Google over noncompliance with child social media curbs

Indonesia summoned officials from Meta and Google over noncompliance with social media restrictions for children under 16 that went into full effect last week, a minister said in a video statement published on Tuesday, March 31.

Indonesia requires social media companies with platforms it deems high risk to deactivate accounts belonging to children under 16, under a regulation that went into effect last week.

Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s Communications and Digital Minister, said Meta and Google are “two business entities that are non-compliant with the law” and that they were summoned on Monday to “undergo checks.”

Failure to implement the curbs may result in sanctions or even a block on the platform, the ministry has said.

Meutya said Google and Meta had opposed the curbs from the very beginning.

Google and Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Both companies said last week they had put in place safeguards for children.

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, and Roblox are two other platforms deemed high risk by the ministry. Meutya said the ministry sent a warning to the two companies to be fully compliant or risk being summoned. TikTok and Roblox did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Indonesia’s curbs, which the government says are intended to reduce the risk of cyberbullying and addiction, follow a ban in Australia last year over concerns about social media’s potential harms to young people’s mental health.

The criteria for high-risk platforms include the possibility of talking to strangers, addictive qualities and psychological risks, the ministry said.

Internet penetration in Indonesia reached 80.66% in 2025, according to a survey by the Indonesia Internet Service Providers’ Association. The survey showed it was 87.8% among “Gen Z” users aged 13 to 28.

There are about 70 million children under 16 in Indonesia, Meutya said. – Rappler.com