Government Orders Education Departments to Limit Children's Device Usage

JAKARTA - The Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, Abdul Mu’ti, has conveyed guidance to education departments to limit children’s use of gadgets as part of implementing the Government Regulation on the Governance of Electronic Systems in Child Protection (PP Tunas). “We have already conveyed this to the Education Departments and also to the Technical Implementation Units to implement PP Tunas regarding the restriction of gadget usage. So, it’s not a ban, but a restriction on usage,” Mu’ti stated when met at his office in Central Jakarta on Monday (30/3/2026). He also socialised the Joint Ministerial Regulation on providing gadgets to children. “We used the momentum (of the first day of school) to socialise PP Tunas and the Joint Ministerial Regulation on restricting gadget usage. Alhamdulillah, everything went well and smoothly,” he explained. “We also briefly mentioned preparations for the National Examination for grade 6 primary school and grade 9 junior high school students,” Mu’ti added. The PP Tunas regulation requires all digital platforms to limit children’s access according to their age and to strengthen the protection of children’s personal data. PP Tunas takes effect from 28 March 2026, and every digital platform entity operating digitally must comply with the provisions of that regulation. If the regulation is not followed, the government will firmly take action against digital platforms in line with Ministerial Regulation of Komdigi number 9 of 2026 as the implementing regulation of PP Tunas. The main objective of this regulation is not merely to limit content, but to protect children’s data privacy, which has so far been scattered on social media platforms and vulnerable to exploitation for business monetisation purposes.