The number comes on the heels of a government census. TikTok and YouTube have disabled about 4.7 million accounts belonging to children under 16 in Indonesia, the country's communications minister said on June 25.
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The majority of the deactivations came from one platform: TikTok deactivated 4.1 million accounts, while YouTube removed 600,000, according to the Minister of Communications and Digital Policy, Meutya Hafid.
The deactivations follow a rule issued by the government in March that requires social media companies that operate high-risk platforms to remove accounts belonging to children under 16. The regulation doesn’t just apply to the two platforms mentioned in the latest figures. It also covers X, Meta’s Instagram and gaming platform Roblox, suggesting the published total is a first installment and not the final number.
Indonesia is a large and young market, which is part of why this policy has weight beyond its borders. The country has moved forward on child online safety more forcefully than most, joining a growing group that includes Norway and the United Kingdom, and the 4.7 million figure gives other governments a concrete data point for what compliance looks like when a regulator sets a strict age limit and asks platforms to enforce it promptly.
The regulation, passed in March, is the legal mechanism behind the numbers. It requires companies that operate platforms that the government deems high-risk to disable accounts belonging to children under 16, and places the burden of enforcement on the platforms themselves rather than on parents or schools. That design, a state-mandated limit enforced by companies under the threat of a penalty, is the same general approach Australia has taken with its under-16 ban, and the two cases are increasingly being read together as tests of whether platform enforcement can work on a national scale.
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The difference between the two platforms’ reported numbers so far is striking. TikTok’s 4.1 million deactivations far exceed YouTube’s 600,000, a gap that may reflect differences in Indonesia’s underage user base, how each service identifies underage accounts, or simply how the two companies have chosen to report.
Italy’s prime minister has warned that such bans are easily circumvented, a warning worth keeping in mind alongside any number of deactivations. The government has urged platforms to disclose the number of accounts they have shut down, and pending figures from X, Instagram and Roblox will fill in the rest of the picture.
The data comes from the minister’s account, and the details the companies have released about how the accounts were identified are limited. The enforcement mechanisms, whether through age declaration, behavioral signals, or other means, were not specified in the announcement, leaving open the same question that has haunted similar measures elsewhere: how many banned users simply return with a new account and a higher declared age.
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What the government has revealed is the headline. TikTok 4.1 million, YouTube 600,000, and a regulation that still has several major platforms to report on. The next numbers, from X, Instagram, and Roblox, will show if the pattern holds.
