ideogame platform Roblox has started implementing several measures to comply with Indonesia’s social media curbs for players under 16, Communications and Digital Affairs minister said on Thursday.
The first measure is age verification through facial scanning for all under 16 Roblox users in Indonesia, minister Meutya Hafid told reporters
Age verification is obliged, otherwise, the chat feature will automatically be turned off by the platform, she added.
The platform will also enable screen time feature for the parents, she said
“These are amongst the most strict protections that we are offering anywhere in the world. This is happening in Indonesia,” Nicky Jackson Colaco, Roblox’s VP and the Global Head of Public Policy told reporters in the same press conference
Nicky said Roblox will launch Roblox Kids for ages 5 to 12 with no chat features and Roblox Select for ages 13 to 15 with chat features limited only for family and friends
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning.
Under the policy, Roblox will automatically begin moving the 23 million accounts of under 16 Indonesian users into either Roblox Kids or Roblox select, Nicky said
There are around 45 million Roblox users in Indonesia where around 23 million of them are under 16, the minister said.
Roblox has 151.5 million daily active users, the company website showed
Indonesia last month issued a regulation which requires social media companies with platforms it deems high-risk to deactivate accounts belonging to children under 16
Indonesia, with its population of over 284 million, boasts among the most social media users in the world, including about 70 million children under the age of 16.
In March, Indonesia issued summons letters to Google and Meta over their failure to comply with a social media ban for under-16s that entered into force.
