South Sulawesi Governor: Student gadget restrictions have been implemented from the start
Makassar (ANTARA) - The Governor of South Sulawesi, Andi Sudirman Sulaiman, stated that restrictions on the use of gadgets for accessing social media by students in the region have been implemented from the outset to protect children from the negative impacts of social media or the internet.
“Alhamdulillah, Mr Minister (Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Abdul Mu’ti), South Sulawesi has been implementing this from the start of my tenure. I have already restricted schoolchildren’s gadgets at school, prohibiting their use in school,” he said at the Muhammadiyah South Sulawesi Syawalan event attended by Minister Abdul Mu’ti in Makassar on Saturday.
He admitted that some time ago he had instructed the Head of the South Sulawesi Education Office (Disdik) to implement a programme restricting gadget use, after observing that many children were spending more time playing with gadgets during lessons.
He also expressed appreciation for the issuance of regulations on restricting social media use, particularly for children under 16 years old.
“We thank you very much for the affirmation and reinforcement from Mr Minister; hopefully, this can apply to all our children. Because the beneficiaries are all of us,” he said in front of thousands of Muhammadiyah South Sulawesi residents.
Nevertheless, the South Sulawesi Education Office continues to encourage the utilisation of technology in the education process. The digitalisation of learning is considered important to support education quality, as long as its use remains under supervision.
Previously, the Deputy Governor of South Sulawesi, Fatmawati Rusdi, emphasised the importance of women’s role in safeguarding family digital resilience amid the strong flow of information technology that brings both opportunities and risks.
“In this digital era, we are faced with new challenges that require caution, ethics, and wisdom in the use of social media and digital devices,” she said.