Report from Business Today
In Brief – Indonesia has issued a formal reprimand to Google over noncompliance by its YouTube service with the country’s new child-protection rules for social media platforms that took effect March 28. The regulations require “high-risk” platforms to deactivate accounts belonging to users under age 16. Indonesian officials argue that the social media age policy is necessary to combat cyberbullying and addiction among minors. The government has designated several digital services as high risk, including YouTube, TikTok, Roblox, X and Meta’s Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. Communications Minister Meutya Hafid said YouTube was warned for failing to outline the steps it will take toward compliance, which is the first sanction under the new law. Meta, on the other hand, has already adjusted its minimum age requirement to 16, a move welcomed by the government. Further penalties, up to platform bans, are possible if companies do not comply.
Context – One of the unwritten rules of global digital regulation is that giant platforms will implement national rules in countries with big, important domestic markets. Indonesia fits the bill, and Google will come around. Online age limits and age checks are on the march globally. Australia’s 16-year-old age threshold for holding social media accounts is the highest profile example, and officials in countries like France, Spain, and the UK have called for similar age limits, but Indonesia’s move is a reminder that age limits are also being proposed in developing countries such as Malaysia, India, Ecuador and Egypt. Many of them have younger populations and more authoritarian governments. Keeping younger people off alternative media and communications platforms until their late teens is a noteworthy byproduct. Before age-checking social media to get teens off their phones became vogue, stopping access to porn was the headline cause and was the initial age check use case in France and the US. Long-held concerns of privacy and civil liberty advocates to online age verification regimes are failing to stem the tide.