Prabowo Orders The Minister Of Trade To Complete The Rules For Children To Surf The Internet For 2 Months

Illustration of people doing activities while playing with their cellphones (HP). (Unsplash-Robin Worral)

Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs (Menkomdigi) Meutya Hafid revealed that his institution was ordered directly by President Prabowo Subianto to complete regulations regarding child protection in the digital space no later than the next two months.

"The President conveyed through Pak Seskab (Cabinet Secretary) to us yesterday that yesterday he wanted an acceleration of the rules for child protection in this digital space so that it can be resolved as soon as possible and we were given one to two months of timeline," said Meutya in Jakarta, Sunday, February 2, quoted by Antara.

The Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Kemkomdigi) also plans to limit access to social media users based on age to respond to this.

In addition, the Minister of Trade admitted that he had signed a Decree (SK) to form a special working team that would discuss studies on these restrictions, including other regulations related to child protection in the digital space.

Based on the Decree, said Meutya, the working team consisting of representatives of several ministries, academics, child education leaders, child observer institutions Save The Children Indonesia, Psychologists, Child Protection Institutions represented by Kak Seto, and many other related institutions will work starting Monday, February 3.

The team, called the Child Protection Regulation Strengthening Team in the Digital realm, will work in three main focuses, first to strengthen regulation and monitoring mechanisms against digital platforms that provide access for children.

Then, they are also tasked with increasing digital literacy for children and parents to be more aware of cyber risks, as well as taking firm action against perpetrators and spreaders of harmful content that threatens the safety of children.

"All ministers involved have the same spirit as the President to accelerate the protection of children in the digital world. The Child Protection Regulation Strengthening Team in the Digital Land formed consists of representatives of the government, academics, practitioners, and representatives of children's NGOs," said the Minister of Communication and Industry.

One aspect studied in regulations relates to special age restrictions for children in the use of social media, as a step to reduce exposure to harmful content.

In drafting regulations, the Minister of Trade coordinated with the Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, the Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, the Minister of Religion and the Minister of Health.

The Minister of Trade said this effort was to deal with the rampant consumption of pornography by children on the internet, where Indonesia is currently ranked fourth in the world in the realm of access to the largest pornographic content.

Based on data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), content on Indonesian child pornography cases for 4 years reached 5,566,015 cases. This number is the 4th largest in the world and 2nd in ASEAN.

Meanwhile, data from the Central Statistics Agency (2021) notes that 89 percent of children aged five years and over use the internet only for social media, which increases their risk of being exposed to harmful content.

Cases of online gambling, pornography, bullying, and sexual violence continue to dominate the complaints received by the Ministry of Communication and Trade.