Indonesia officially barred under-16s from using “high-risk” social media earlier this year. But that hasn’t stopped the son of one Jakarta-based writer from using it.
Aged 14, he already had accounts on Instagram and TikTok – among the platforms Jakarta said children would be banned from using – as well as popular video game Minecraft and gaming platform Roblox. To register, he simply lied about his age.
“He can access everything,” Inne Abidin said of her son. “His friends use everything too.”
Since March, Indonesia has had some of Southeast Asia’s strictest rules governing children’s social media use.