Bigmo's Lawyer: Vape Promotion Content Involving Children Was Spontaneous
Youtuber Muhammad Jannah, also known as Bigmo, was questioned with 40 questions by investigators regarding alleged promotion of vape liquid involving children in a live streaming broadcast.
“Bigmo has attended and been examined with approximately 40 questions, and during the examination Bigmo has presented the chronology of events during the live stream,” said Bigmo’s lawyer, Sangun Ragahdo, at Polda Metro Jaya on Monday (10/8).
Ragahdo claimed that the live stream conducted by Bigmo occurred spontaneously and without a script. He added that Bigmo had no intention of exploiting children.
“Bigmo simply came to the location with two of his friends, everything happened spontaneously, and perhaps the incident that recently went viral, mentioning one of the brands, was just spontaneous. There was absolutely no intention from the start to, in quotation marks, exploit children,” he said.
Ragahdo stated that following the incident, Bigmo has made efforts to meet the parents of the children featured in the video and has apologised.
“As a gesture of good faith, Bigmo has approached and visited the families of the underage children, and during the meeting Bigmo conveyed his apology. Ultimately the parents have forgiven him and there is no remaining issue there,” he said.
On the same occasion, Bigmo once again apologised for the uproar caused by his content.
“Of course I apologise for the commotion I have caused, and this will certainly serve as a lesson for me to produce more positive and beneficial content in the future,” he said.
Bigmo also stated that following this controversy he will evaluate the content he creates going forward.
“I will certainly evaluate my content so far, and in the future I will only create content with more sincere intentions, that is beneficial, positive, entertaining, and educates the nation,” he said.
Youtuber Bigmo was previously reported to the Directorate of PPA-PPO at Polda Metro Jaya following allegations that he invited several underage children to promote vape liquid through a live streaming broadcast.
Regarding this matter, Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid stated that practices exploiting children to promote products not intended for them constitute a serious violation and cannot be tolerated.
“Children must be protected from all forms of exploitation in the digital space. Content involving children to promote vape products clearly contradicts the spirit of child protection and should not be given space on digital platforms,” said Meutya in her statement on Sunday (2/8).