Meta Raises Minimum User Age to 16 Years

The Ministry of Communication and Digital (Komdigi) states that the global digital platform Meta has now raised the minimum user age to 16 years. This change applies to all social media platforms under the technology giant founded by Mark Zuckerberg, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

According to Minister of Communication and Digital Meutya Hafid, the change has been officially incorporated into Meta’s community guidelines on Thursday, 9 April 2026. “We appreciate Meta, which oversees Instagram, Facebook, and Threads, as an inspection has shown their compliance in aligning their product features and services with Indonesian law,” Meutya said in a written statement on Friday.

The change was implemented after Komdigi summoned Meta’s representatives in Indonesia on 7 April 2026. The inspection addressed allegations of violations regarding user protection obligations under Government Regulation No. 17 of 2025 on the Governance of Electronic System Operators in Child Protection (PP Tunas).

Under the new regulation, all high-risk digital platforms are required to set a user age limit above 16 years, higher than the previous standard of around 13 years. Until the regulation took effect on 28 March 2026, Meta had not fulfilled its obligation to restrict children’s access to the platforms.

In addition to Meta, on the same day, Komdigi inspected Google, the parent company of the YouTube platform. However, unlike Meta, Meutya said that as of today, Google has not shown a commitment to compliance with the applicable regulations. “To Google, we have imposed an administrative sanction in the form of a first warning,” Meutya stated.

The Golkar Party politician emphasised that all platforms must comply with government regulations. She stated that all platforms will be treated equally under the law. “The government does not tolerate non-compliance; administrative sanctions up to firm measures will be enforced,” she added.