Government to Immediately Finalize Regulations on Child Protection by Electronic System Operators

Article 16A paragraph (1) of Law Number 1 of 2024 concerning the Second Amendment to Law No. 11/2008 on Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) states that electronic system organizers must provide protection for children accessing electronic systems. Paragraph (2) of Article 16A states that the protection referred to in paragraph (1) includes the protection of children's rights as referred to in regulations regarding the use of products, services, and features developed and organized by the electronic system organizer.

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Then, in Article 16A Paragraph (3) UU ITE it is stated, in providing products, services and features for children, PSE is obliged to implement technology and technical operational steps to provide protection as intended in Paragraph (1) from the development stage to the implementation stage.

Next, Article 16A Clause (4) of the ITE Law states that in providing protection as referred to in Clause (1), PSE must provide information regarding the minimum age limit for children, verification mechanisms for child users, and reporting of the abuse of products, services, and features that violate or potentially violate children's rights.

"Hopefully, in July 2024 it can be harmonized at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights," said Budi.

Budi added that an important trigger for PSE's child protection governance is the rampant cases of pornography and prostitution against children in cyberspace. Children become victims of such deviant behavior. According to Budi, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has always coordinated with the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection to block pornographic and prostitution content against children on the internet.

Executive Director of the Institute for Studies and Advocacy for Society (Elsam), Wahyudi Djafar, stated on Saturday (20/4/2024) in Jakarta that one method to strengthen child protection in the use of digital technology is by using age assurance schemes, such as those developed by the Information Commission Office in the UK. Age assurance encompasses a range of techniques to estimate or verify the age of children and users, including self-declarations; artificial intelligence and biometric-based systems; technical design steps; age checks provided by third parties using tokens; and the use of identities.

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The scheme also encourages digital platforms to develop child protection standards or codes by outlining expectations for online services accessed by children using age assurance. This, apart from referring to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), also emphasizes principles related to efforts to mitigate risks, especially those related to the principles of non-discrimination, respect for children's opinions, protection of children's privacy, and protection from exploitation. sexual.

"In the context of age assurance, the regulation at the law level should only formulate general and principle aspects. Technology for ensuring age assurance continues to develop," said Wahyudi.

As part of PSE's accountability efforts, one of the schemes that has emerged in society is related to their responsibility to ensure protection for children, both in terms of privacy and the content that children access. The privacy of children is closely related to the processing of children's data, while content is related to the risks that are dangerous to the fate of children.

So far, the ITE Law has not specifically regulated the protection of children in the use of information and communication technology despite much of its material referencing the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, which specifically prohibits the dissemination of child pornography. Provisions regarding child protection in the ITE Law are only related to the imposition of criminal penalties for the prohibition of obscene content dissemination related to children.

Separately, Andy Ardian, the Program Manager of ECPAT Indonesia, believes that if the government moves quickly to issue government regulations regarding child protection in the digital realm by PSE, it is a positive step. Meaning, the government has a serious awareness in addressing child protection issues in cyberspace.

"We have criticized the government for being slow to respond to child pornographic content on the internet," he said.

Andy mentioned that in the United States, PSE is required to report whenever incidents of child pornography occur on their platform. Such regulations seem to be nonexistent in Indonesia.

According to him, since 2019, a draft Presidential regulation (Perpres) on the roadmap for online child protection has been discussed. In 2023, the draft Perpres was actually completed and harmonized at the ministry/agency level, but until now it has not been signed (approved).

"We hope that the regulation regarding the Child Protection Governance by Electronic System (PSE) and the Draft Presidential Regulation for the Roadmap of Child Protection in the Online Realm, if approved, can push the technology industry to be more concerned about child protection," he said.

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