Komdigi Prepares New Social Media Registration Rules to Tackle Underage Manipulation

Children manipulating ages or using fake ages to register social media accounts have become a serious concern. In response, the Ministry of Communications and Digital (Komdigi) hinted at forthcoming regulations regarding the mechanism for registering social media accounts in Indonesia. Nanci Laura, Senior Policy Analyst, Directorate General of Digital Space Oversight, said the government is preparing rules on how social media accounts will be registered going forward to address the growing phenomenon of age manipulation. ‘The registration process for social media will change; just wait for the regulations. This has indeed become a national concern, given the large number of fake ages registered on social media,’ Nanci said at the Cerdas Digital 2026 event in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, on Friday (22/5). Separately, Esther Samboh, Regional Lead, Facebook & Messaging Policy, APAC, explained that Meta, comprising Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, already has its own system to filter underage users. ‘There is also a classification system at Meta to identify accounts that manipulate ages. So, from our side we can provide that technology; there are steps and systems to determine whether the age matches what was stated at registration,’ Esther said. However, Esther noted that a verification system centralised directly from the ecosystem or the device’s operating system would be far more effective. ‘If verification happens from the device ecosystem itself, it becomes the one-stop shop (pusat verifikasi satu pintu). So as soon as you open the app, there are categories.’ Thus, age screening would no longer be necessary in every app downloaded by a child. User age data would be automatically locked since the device is first configured. ‘Within the ecosystem, the owner of the device already has clear age information, so it only needs to be downloaded. It would be better if this were centralised from the device,’ she added. Rising age manipulation serves as an important reminder that digital safety for children in this era is critical to prevent undesirable outcomes. Meutya Hafid revealed that Roblox users in Indonesia number about 45 million, with an estimated 23 million under 16. Roblox will automatically migrate around 23 million under-16 accounts in Indonesia into the age-based system. The educational event focused on digital literacy, child protection, and responsible creative content production in the AI era. Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid emphasised that policymakers must maintain public trust amid misinformation and AI. Collaboration among media, government and digital platforms is the key to healthy information spaces. Agentic AI technology should be used as a strategic instrument of the state to drive more precise, adaptive, data-driven public policy in the digital era. Minister Meutya Hafid disclosed the blocking of 3.45 million online gambling sites and a reduction in gambling fund turnover to Rp286 trillion in 2025. She described deepfake AI as a systematic threat; the government tightens digital space oversight and cyber patrols. Komdigi, in collaboration with Media Indonesia, hosted Insight Talks on media literacy titled ‘Literacy in the AI Era.’ The Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Digital together with Media Indonesia organised Insight Talks in Kendari to discuss AI challenges for the press, government regulation, and the importance of human verification.