The Government Wants A Minimum Limit Of Social Media Users To Be 17 Years Old

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) stated in the Personal Data Bill (RUU PDP) that the age limit for having a social media account is 17 years old. This means that adolescents under this age need parental consent before using social media.

"Indonesia through this RUU (PDP) proposes a limit of 17 years, under that age there must be approval from parents. Parents must be involved," said Director General of Informatics Applications, Kominfo, Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, Thursday, November 19.

The law will require that there be an identification mechanism involving parents when a child under the age of 17 opens a social media account. If this mechanism is implemented, there will be more steps that must be passed when children under the age limit open social media accounts.

This age limit is an adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Personal Data Protection Act in the European Union. The GDPR sets a limit on the age of 16 children can give consent, and are legally recognized, to enter the digital world. Under that age, under the GDPR, there must be the consent or consent of the parents.

According to Semuel, this method is taken so that there is involvement and communication between children and parents before entering the digital space. He is worried that if there is no agreement from the parents about the child opening a social media account, the communication between the child and the parents will be disrupted.

"Indeed, this will be difficult, but, if not, the relationship between the child and the parents will be cut off because the child makes his own world, the parent is the world himself," said Semuel.

The Personal Data Protection Bill contains the rights and obligations of personal data owners, processors or collectors of personal data as well as authorities overseeing the protection of personal data.

Regarding the treatment of data belonging to children under 17 years of age, the bill, as stated by Semuel, the data will be classified as specific or sensitive data. Data for children under 17 years of age will be the same as biometric data, among other things, it is protected by encryption and cannot be used for marketing purposes.

Semuel invites participation from parents to protect personal data, even though there will be regulations regarding children's personal data. Where it is better if children who are not of age enough not to make social media accounts because in the digital space, they will interact with people whose ages are far apart.

Social media, such as Facebook, has a minimum age limit of 13 years for opening accounts. When children are old enough to open social media accounts, Semuel suggests that the first friends on social media are parents.

The PDP Bill is currently still in the discussion stage with the House of Representatives, targeted for completion this year. If this is not possible this year, the PDP bill is targeted for completion in early 2021.