The Second Amendment To The ITE Bill Adds Child Protection Articles, How Is The Technical?

Director General of Aptika Kominfo Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan (photo: Dinda Buana/VOI)

JAKARTA - On Wednesday, November 22, Commission I of the Indonesian House of Representatives and the Government agreed to the Draft Law (RUU) on the Second Amendment to Bill Number 11 of 2008 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) to be brought to level II discussions.

One of the additional articles in this second revision is Articles 16A and 16B concerning child protection in the implementation of electronic systems. The article 16A paragraph 1 itself reads "Electronic System Operators are required to provide protection for children who use or access electronic systems."

"Article 16A, this is a new article. 16A reads: PSE is obliged to provide protection for children who use or access electronic systems. Paragraph 2 of which is protection as referred to in paragraph 1, protection for children's rights as referred to in the legislation in using products, services, features developed and organized by electronic system providers," explained Director General of Aptika Kominfo Samuel A. Pangerapan in his press conference on Thursday, November 23 at the Kominfo office, Jakarta.

According to Sammy, this is a new movement, which has been implemented by several countries such as Europe and the UK. Where digital platforms should pay attention to what content will appear on the child's homepage.

"If you want to present it to your child, you have to pay attention to this. Children's rights must be protected, do not expose something or content that exceeds the age. So it can interfere with the physical health of the child," said Sammy further.

Sammy admitted that the addition of this article came from input from parents, who felt that their children needed to be protected. So, later the government will make its own Government Regulation (PP) regarding child protection.

"Well, we include this (parent input), it will be regulated in their own PP. The PP has now been prepared, the president asked for it quickly regarding online child protection. There are technicalities, they launch products, they have designed them to think about children. How to validate, these children should not be given inappropriate content," he said.