Yogyakarta, July 4th 2025—With the increase of internet access by children, safety of digital spaces became a key concern. A 2024 data from BPS shows that 35,5 percent of children aged 0-4 have access to the internet, marking a sign of digital exposure in the early ages. This does not only create opportunities, but also serious challenges, starting from exposure of dangerous content, cyberbullying, as well as other misdeeds like digital exploitation. As a response to these challenges, UGM Centre for Digital Society (CfDS) organized the DIFUSSION #124 discussion session titled “Protecting Digital Space for Kids: Can PP TUNAS become the answer?”. This discussion presents many experts in the field of online child protection, which includes Andy Ardian (Coordinator for Nasional ECPAT Indonesia), Nenden Sekar Arum (Executive Director of SAFENet), and Ayom Mratita Purbandani (Researcher at CfDS UGM), with Nabila Rizkita (Researcher at CfDS UGM) as moderator.
This session uncovers the Indonesian Government Regulation (PP) No. 17 of 2025 Regarding the Governance of Electronic System Implementation in Child Protection, more commonly known as PP TUNAS, as a way for the government to provide special protection for children in the digital space. Andy Ardian opens the discussion by highlighting the increase of sexual violence cases towards children online. “In 2024 alone, we received over 707 reports, and 236 of them are proven to be contents related to Child Sexual Abuse Material or CSAM,” Andy explained. Furthermore, Andy was concerned that Indonesia can potentially be a safe haven for these sorts of content, and emphasized the importance of the government’s and digital platforms alike to respond as well as suppress the distribution of harmful content towards children.
Nenden Sekar Arum underlined the importance of accountability of digital platforms. “Children are very vulnerable, and digital platforms have the power over their algorithm as well as monetisation that could affect both exposure and their behavior in that regard. Without clear transparency from the platform, we will not know how this system works or how risks are set,” She emphasized in her explanation. According to Nenden, online child protection cannot be separated from the ethical and business responsibility of digital industry players. Other than that, Ayom Mratita highlighted the weakness of PP TUNAS, that even though it became a step forward in the field, also has several flaws. “This regulation is descended from UU ITE, not UU PDP, and that explains why it is still weak on the aspect of children’s personal data management,” Ayom mentioned. She also talked about the absence of technical standards for age verification, the lack of clear definition regarding “high privacy level”, as well as the minimal amount of mechanisms involving children in the design of digital systems.
As for the closing, all of the speakers agreed that PP TUNAS is a step in the right direction that needs to be accompanied and perfected. Child protection in the digital realm needs to be a collaborative agenda that includes cooperation between the government, digital platforms, civil society groups, as well as the children themselves as the future owner of a safer digital space.