Building Digital Resilience in Children: A Reflection on National Children's Day

The essence of a restoration movement is to build civilisation and strengthen human quality. The commemoration of National Children’s Day (HAN) on 23 July 2026 carries the main theme ‘Love Children, Protect and Build Their Future’, focusing on a National Movement for Safe and Comfortable Spaces for Children across four environments: family, school, public spaces, and the digital world. This theme is particularly apt, as it seems no space is truly safe for children from the threat of violence nowadays. The potential for violence against children is no longer confined to the home, school, or public places. In the post-modern society era, threats of violence against children have largely shifted to the digital realm. According to data, more than 78% of children aged 5 to 17 in Indonesia have used a mobile phone, with nearly 74% of them connected to the internet. Demographically, 48% of national internet users are children under the age of 18, and 80% of them spend more than 7 hours a day in front of a screen. Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) and reports from the Ministry of Communication and Digital, the percentage of children who have ever used the internet has surged from around 49% to almost 74% in recent years. In fact, about 23.19% of active internet users in Indonesia are under 13 years old. Among toddlers under four, 25.5% use gadgets and 18.79% access the internet. For early childhood, 39.71% of children have used a mobile phone. In the 5-6 year age group, the number using gadgets rises to 53.76%, with internet access reaching 51.19%. Generation Alpha, or children under six, is recorded as the third-largest group of internet users in Indonesia, with 41% already accessing the internet. Besides distance learning and searching for educational information, their online activities worryingly include playing online games and accessing social media, especially YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms. While increased access to the virtual world opens up opportunities for children to develop their potential and skills—given the unlimited information available—the digital space has also become a new battleground for child protection in Indonesia. Alongside these opportunities, children face dangerous threats, from cyberbullying and pornography to online sexual exploitation. In facing this situation, digital literacy and active supervision are the front lines in saving our children’s future. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, children have become accustomed to using the internet and gadgets. The opportunity to access the virtual world allows them to surf freely and download necessary information. The digital space seemingly offers a million freedoms for children to learn, play, and express themselves. However, this freedom also harbours potentially costly risks. The National Survey of Children and Adolescents’ Life Experiences (SNPHAR) consistently shows a high prevalence of cyberbullying among teenagers. Even more worryingly, thousands of cases of digital violence and online sexual exploitation of children continue to haunt the country’s digital sphere. A comprehensive global report by Unicef (2020) titled ‘Disrupting Harm’ specifically examines the dangers of exploitation, cyberbullying, and online sexual harassment threatening children in the modern digital era. These threats are not just discourse; they are a reality for millions of our children. The mass media has repeatedly reported stories of children falling victim to crimes in the virtual world, becoming prey to the seductions of sexual predators and being turned into playthings for individuals exploiting the digital space for their depraved actions. Lately, one of the most dangerous and often overlooked threats to parents is child grooming. Unlike physical violence, which leaves visible scars, grooming operates psychologically. Digital predators typically work silently, relying on subtle seduction. They slowly approach children through social media or online game chat features, building trust, offering false attention, and creating emotional dependency until they can manipulate the victim for sexual exploitation. Many victims fall into this trap because the perpetrators use persuasion and threats, making the children too afraid to report to adults. When accessing the virtual world, children are also at risk of exposure to harmful content such as extreme violence, radicalism, and pornography, which can be easily accessed or directed by digital platform algorithms. Even online gaming platforms and messaging apps are often infiltrated by online gambling syndicates and radical networks that target the emotional vulnerabilities of young people. Without adequate digital literacy and sufficient protection, it is no surprise that our children are vulnerable to becoming victims of cybercrime. Child victims not only face the risk of long-term psychological trauma, such as depression and anxiety, but are also at risk of developing self-harming behaviours.