Communications Minister Urges Parents to Reduce Children's Gadget Use During Eid Holiday

Jakarta – Indonesia’s Minister of Communications and Digital (Menkomdigi) Meutya Hafid has invited families to use the Eid holiday and mudik (homecoming) season as an opportunity to strengthen direct interaction between parents and children by reducing gadget usage.

According to Meutya, the Eid holiday break provides families with a chance to build more intensive communication amid rising digital technology usage.

“Use this holiday and homecoming period to spend as much time as possible with family. You can turn off gadgets or at least reduce their use,” said Meutya Hafid at Central Jakarta on Wednesday.

She also reminded that the government is moving towards implementing Government Regulation No. 17 of 2025 on Electronic System Governance for Child Protection (PP Tunas), which will take effect on 28 March 2026.

“For children under 16 years old, we are moving towards implementing a policy that will take effect on 28 March. From now on, it might be good to gradually start preparing by reducing time on social media with parental guidance,” said Meutya.

According to her, changes in digital technology usage patterns require family readiness.

Therefore, the role of parents in educating their children with responsible digital literacy education is crucial in supporting children’s readiness to follow the recommendations from PP Tunas.

Healthy communication between parents and children can facilitate this process.

“Perhaps during this Eid holiday period is a good time for parents and children to have heart-to-heart conversations to begin making preparations,” she said.

Meutya hopes the homecoming and Eid holiday season will be utilised by families to increase joint activities, so that children can interact more directly with their families without dependence on digital devices.