Commission I of House: Digital Protection Regulation Safeguards Children Online
Jakarta — The Deputy Chairman of Commission I of the House of Representatives, Sukamta, is confident that Government Regulation (PP) Number 17 of 2025 on Digital System Management for Child Protection (PP Tunas), which comes into effect in March this year, will provide protection for children in digital spaces.
According to him, restrictions on internet usage for children represent an answer to the concerns of all stakeholders, including parents, teachers and policymakers. He believes that there are many negative impacts from internet content accessed by children.
“The state has a responsibility to prevent greater harm resulting from this technological advancement. We must control technology, not the other way around,” said Sukamta in Jakarta on Wednesday.
He stated that the regulation was introduced given data on cases affecting children due to accessing internet content that is quite concerning. Based on data from the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi), 48 per cent of internet users in Indonesia are below 18 years old.
From this figure, more than 80 per cent of children access the internet daily with an average duration of more than seven hours per day. Additionally, data from UNICEF indicates that approximately 50 per cent of Indonesian children using the internet have been exposed to sexual content on social media.
On the other hand, he reported that cases of online child exploitation have reached approximately 1.45 million. Recent cases of violence perpetrated by children have also been influenced by violent content from social media and online games.
“The available data demonstrates that this matter must be treated seriously,” he said.
He explained that PP Tunas is derived from Article 16A of the Law on Electronic Information and Transactions (UU ITE), which requires Electronic System Operators (PSE) to protect children from negative content or content inappropriate for a child’s age.
Additionally, according to him, Article 40 paragraph 2D of the UU ITE also requires PSE to conduct independent content moderation for content that could potentially harm life or the health of individuals and society.
Based on this, he stated that Article 5 in PP Tunas also provides guidance for PSE in assessing content risk levels. More specifically, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics Regulation Number 2 of 2024 on Game Classification also regulates the categorisation of online games based on the age of children accessing them, namely 3, 7, 13, 15 and 18 years.
“We are grateful for the implementation of PP Tunas; however, we will continue to monitor and evaluate its implementation, as classifying internet content requires greater monitoring efforts compared to an outright ban,” he said.