October 12, 2026
JAKARTA – Indonesia has again urged Meta to comply with the country’s Child Protection in Digital Space Regulation, known as PP TUNAS, singling out its Threads platform for failing to report any action against underage users more than six months after the regulation took effect.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Communications and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said the United States tech giant had yet to demonstrate its commitment to meeting its obligations to protect children online.
“Regarding the deactivation of children’s accounts on Threads, there have been no reports on enforcement actions taken against [underage] accounts, nor have any reports been submitted to the ministry,” Meutya said.
“Therefore, we call upon Meta to immediately demonstrate its commitment to fulfilling its obligations, particularly concerning the Threads platform,” she continued.
Launched in 2023, Threads is Meta’s text-based social media platform for sharing short posts. It is one the company’s three platforms widely used in Indonesia, alongside Facebook and Instagram.
For the latter two platforms, Meutya said the ministry had received a report from Meta that around 85,000 underage Instagram accounts and 99,000 Facebook accounts had been blocked so far.
Indonesia had previously estimated that around 33 million accounts belonging to users under 16 existed across Meta’s three platforms.
Meutya said Meta had also outlined plans to move around 22.5 million underage Facebook and Instagram accounts to its “teen account” mode. However, Indonesia still considered the feature high-risk under PP TUNAS standards.
“We found that teen accounts still feature communication with other people, including strangers, which means we cannot categorize the platform as low-risk,” Meutya said.
Under PP TUNAS, platforms must assess seven areas of risk to be considered adequately safe for children: contact, content, addiction, safety, consumer protection, physiological well-being and mental health.
Meutya asserted that Indonesia remained open to discussions with all social media platforms on implementing the regulation, but stressed that companies had only around five months left to meet its requirements.
The ministry has held talks with senior technology executives, including on the sidelines of last month’s 81st United Nations General Assembly, where Meutya met Meta vice president and head of global public policy Kevin J. Martin.
“I urge these platforms to make the best use of the available avenues for dialogue, so that the government does not simply impose strict regulations without room for discussion,” Meutya said.
“Spaces for dialogue exist, so please utilize it. Do not wait until March 2027 to achieve full compliance,” she continued.
Indonesia introduced PP TUNAS earlier this year to create a safer digital environment for children, amid concerns over their exposure to harmful content, pornography, cyberbullying, exploitation and online addiction.
The regulation classifies platforms into three risk-based tiers. High-risk platforms must restrict access for users under 16 and require parental authorization, while medium-risk platforms may be used by those aged 13 to 15 with verified parental consent.
The government’s list of high-risk platforms included all three Meta services, as well as X, gaming platform Roblox, TikTok, YouTube, and livestreaming app Bigo Live.
Roblox has so far led the implementation of PP TUNAS, with 23 million users already moved to its children’s version, which has more limited features, particularly its chat functions. The government in September applauded the platform for its “strict” compliance.
TikTok, meanwhile, had blocked some 9 million underage accounts as of October. X’s latest report listed only around 250,000 accounts belonging to users under 16, far below the government’s estimate of 7 million.
Last month, Indonesia finalized its draft penalty policy for social media platforms that fail to meet the Dec. 31 deadline for self-assessment under PP TUNAS. Possible sanctions range from fines to full access blocking.
For large-scale or global platforms, the proposed penalty is set at 6 percent of global revenue. Penalties for domestic electronic system providers (PSE), meanwhile, would be based on business size, ranging from a maximum of Rp 1 billion (US$56,447) for micro enterprises to Rp 10 billion for medium-sized businesses.
Meta representatives did not respond to requests for comment from The Jakarta Post.
————————————————
