Indonesia’s PP TUNAS Regulation Forces 4.7 Million Account Deactivations in Two Months
What You Need to Know
- TikTok suspended 4.1 million underage accounts in Indonesia as of June under PP TUNAS regulation.
- Indonesia’s PP TUNAS regulation requires high-risk platforms to deactivate accounts held by children under 16.
- Indonesia uses risk-based framework assigning different compliance requirements rather than blanket bans on all platforms.
- Around 200 digital platforms submitted self-assessments for risk classification under the regulation implemented in March.
Indonesia’s enforcement of PP TUNAS, its child protection regulation for digital platforms, has produced a concrete early result: TikTok suspended 4.1 million underage accounts as of June, and YouTube removed around 600,000 in May, for a combined 4.7 million deactivations across the two platforms alone. Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid said the figures represent an early signal that platforms are beginning to meet their obligations under the regulation, which came into force in March and requires high-risk platforms to deactivate accounts held by children under 16.
What makes Indonesia’s approach structurally different from a blunt ban is the risk-based framework built into PP TUNAS. Rather than treating all platforms equally, the government assigns risk profiles, and platforms designated high-risk, currently including X, Instagram, and Roblox, face the strictest requirements. Around 200 other digital platforms have submitted self-assessments that officials are now working through. This graduated model is drawing attention because it creates a compliance architecture rather than a headline, which is harder to circumvent and harder to dismiss as unenforceable. Australia passed its under-16 ban last year and became the first country to do so, but Indonesia’s risk-tiered structure is a different instrument, one that may prove more durable precisely because it builds enforcement into platform operations rather than relying on age-gate theatrics.
The scale of TikTok’s deactivations, 4.1 million accounts from a single platform in one country, suggests the technical capacity to act at volume has never really been in question.
The timing matters because the UK is now moving in the same direction. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced last week that Britain will ban under-16s from Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X, with implementation expected early next year. YouTube and Meta have already pushed back, arguing blanket restrictions drive younger users toward unmoderated platforms, a concern Starmer acknowledged without conceding ground. Indonesia’s early enforcement data will likely be cited in that debate, both by governments wanting proof of concept and by platforms looking for evidence that risk-based models produce results without outright bans. Australia, Canada, Brazil, France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand, and South Korea are all at various stages of similar legislation, meaning the policy window for platforms to shape the regulatory design is closing faster than any single country’s timeline suggests.
The UK ban is expected to begin early next year, with further details on proposed overnight curfews and scroll-break requirements for under-18s due next month.
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