JAKARTA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Indonesia will impose

interim child protection guidelines on social media companies

while the government carves out a law to set a minimum age for

users of the platforms, a senior communications ministry

official said on Wednesday.

On Monday, communications minister Meutya Hafid said the

government planned to issue a regulation to set a minimum age

for social media users, after discussing the proposal to protect

children online with President Prabowo Subianto.

The plan follows Australia's decision to ban children under

16 from accessing social media, with fines for tech giants from

Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok, owned by

China's ByteDance, if they failed to prevent children from

accessing their platforms.

"What the minister means is that the government is headed

for the direction of a stronger regulation on age limit, which

is through the formation of a law," Alexander Sabar, a senior

official at the communications and digital ministry, told

Reuters.

In the meantime, the government will issue a regulation for

digital platforms, including social media companies, to adhere

to child protection guidelines, he said, without providing

details.

"The emphasis for the government regulation is child

protection -- how they are protected from physical, mental, or

moral perils," he said, adding the regulation would not totally

limit children's access to social media.

Meta and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

Nurmayanti, a 46-year-old mother of three who goes by one

name, said she agreed with the plan to curtail social media

content, particularly content promoting pornography or

discrimination.

"They now can freely open social media so that is concerning

to us as parents," she said, adding the law must be strict and

clear.

However, Anis Hidayah, a commissioner at Indonesia's main

human rights body, said that limiting the internet for children

was important but the government must be careful to not curb

their right to information.

Nearly 50% of children under 12 in tech-savvy Indonesia use

the internet with some respondents of that age group using

Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, according to a survey by the

Indonesia internet service providers' association.