Government Digital Child Protection Regulation and Healthy Eid Celebration for Children
Indonesia possesses an extraordinary tradition in approaching Eid celebrations, with inter-generational family gatherings bringing together extended family members—aunts, uncles, grandparents, parents—and children within the family circle. They participate in the ritual of sungkeman (respectful greeting), a hierarchical form of communication and culturally specific practice in Javanese culture and several other Indonesian regions.
Sungkeman conveys messages of respect, humility, and forgiveness, reinforcing social structures and behavioural ethics wherein younger people honour their elders, whilst also serving as a means of emotional reconciliation. However, as digital technology has become integral to society, cultural communication within Indonesian communities has changed dramatically in both concept and understanding.
Digital culture has become a lifestyle across various spheres of life, particularly with the continual influx of new gadgets into the Indonesian market during Eid season. Consequently, social life has become divided into two spaces—physical and digital—which operate simultaneously yet each possessing reciprocal influence, including within children’s lives. In daily activities, children absorbed in screens tend to neglect cultural communication such as sungkeman or visits to neighbours for greetings.
Research from Padjadjaran University indicates a shift from traditional (face-to-face) values to modern technological ones. Since gadgets frequently replace parental roles in caring for or soothing children, communal moments like Eid lead children to lose sensitivity towards traditions, having become accustomed to instant digital stimulation. Furthermore, the unavoidable digital lifestyle has created numerous emerging problems. A 2024 Jayapangus Press journal explains that excessive gadget use during primary school years creates maladaptive behaviour, with children tending towards individualism whilst losing empathy and cooperative abilities. During Eid, children become reluctant to participate in sungkeman rituals or socialise with relatives, preferring solitude with games or social media.
In response to these social phenomena, the government issued Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs Regulation Number 9 of 2026 as implementing regulation of PP Tunas to strengthen child protection in digital spaces. This regulation brings positive developments for children’s growth and promotes healthy Eid celebrations. The policy represents concrete state action ensuring Indonesian children grow and use the internet more safely; from 28 March 2026, accounts for children under 16 years old on high-risk digital platforms such as social media and networking services will begin deactivation according to regulations.
This step protects children from various internet threats including exposure to harmful content, cyberbullying, and online fraud. Through this policy, the government aims to ensure digital transformation proceeds alongside responsibility in protecting young people, making Indonesia’s digital space safer, healthier, and supportive of child development. The government hopes this creates a safer and healthier digital environment whilst ensuring technological progress aligns with protecting Indonesia’s young generation.
However, this effort requires support from families and the smallest circles where children develop, as these immediate factors form the key to policy effectiveness. Without internal support or the immediate environment where children grow, any government policy will fail to reach its targets, including the need for digital literacy among parents in explaining the benefits and harms of gadget use for children.
Parental roles become critically important, not merely as gadget usage supervisors but also as exemplars in building warm family communication. The Eid season can actually be utilised as cultural learning space for children, where they understand the meaning of silaturahmi (family bonds), appreciate elders, and experience togetherness that cannot be replaced by digital interaction. Through direct experiences such as handshakes, conversations with relatives, and participating in sungkeman traditions, children learn about empathy, respect, and social values forming the foundation of community life.
Furthermore, Eid traditions fundamentally are not merely annual rituals but also vehicles for transmitting cultural values from one generation to the next. Should these cultural communication spaces erode under digital screen dominance, what would be lost is not merely tradition but also values shaping Indonesian society’s social character. Therefore, maintaining balance between technology use and tradition preservation becomes critically important.
Ultimately, digital technology cannot be rejected as it has become part of modern life’s reality. However, society retains the choice to determine how technology is used without sacrificing the cultural roots long binding social life. Eid should remain a warm meeting space where people greet one another, forgive, and strengthen family bonds that may have weakened through life’s busyness.