Roblox to introduce new controls in Indonesia to comply with child social media block

[JAKARTA] Videogame platform Roblox will introduce content and communications controls for players under 16 in Indonesia to comply with the country’s social media block for children, Matt Kaufman, Roblox’s chief safety officer, said on Wednesday (Mar 25).

Indonesia will require platforms to deactivate “high risk” social media accounts for under 16s, according to a ministerial regulation issued earlier this month.

The deactivations are set to take effect on Mar 28, said Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s Communications and Digital Minister.

Roblox, Instagram, Google’s YouTube, and TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, were among the platforms identified by the Communications and Digital Ministry earlier this month as high risk.

“This week, we announced that in order to address regional requirements in Indonesia, we will soon introduce additional controls on content and communication for players under the age of 16 years old in Indonesia,” Kaufman said.

Roblox did not provide details about the additional controls.

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Social media platform X said that starting from Mar 28, its Indonesian users must be at least 16 years old to have an account.

X said on its website that Indonesia’s minimum age requirement “prevents age-restricted social media platforms, including X, from letting people under 16 create or keep an account. It’s not our choice, it’s what Indonesian law requires”.

A number of countries, including Australia, have imposed curbs on social media for children amid mounting concerns about the safety and mental health of underage users. REUTERS