Indonesia: Unlicensed Daycare Caught Tying Up 53 Babies and Toddlers [NSFL]

An unlicensed daycare in Indonesia was watching over more than 100 babies and toddlers at once. Investigators found 53 of them tied down by the hands or feet, some even looped to doorknobs so they couldn’t crawl off.

The footage from inside is quieter than you’d expect, and that’s the part that sticks.

Video

If the sound of a crying baby gets to you, you might want to sit this one out.

The clip is a string of short cuts from inside “Little Aresha,” a nursery with pastel teal walls and a floor packed wall to wall with colorful foam play mats. Staff in headscarves move between rows of infants in diapers, crouching down to handle one kid after another, and in one shot a man just stands in the background filming the whole thing on his phone. Some of the babies are crying, and a lot of them are lying quiet on the mats, not moving much while the staff shuffle around them.

The camera never lingers long enough to show the actual tying-up in one clean shot. What it does show is too many babies and nowhere near enough hands.

What the Thread Said

Most of the reactions came down to staffing math: with that many babies and so few workers, some commenters argued, tying them down was the only way to keep toddlers from crawling off and getting hurt while nobody was watching. That’s a reason, not an excuse.

Indonesia’s Daycare License Problem

The daycare in the video never had a license to operate, and it turns out that’s the norm, not the exception, in Indonesia.

• 11 daycare workers got 2 to 2.6 years in prison for ongoing child abuse at the Yogyakarta facility
• 13 people, including the director, were named suspects after an April 24, 2026 police raid
• The place held zero permits, not as a daycare, a preschool, or a kindergarten
• 44% of Indonesia’s daycares have no license or legal status at all
• The same month, another unlicensed daycare in Banda Aceh got busted for child abuse too

Watch Next

TOXIC SAMURAI HOME