Protecting Children’s Rights in Indonesia’s Digital Landscape: Between Innovation and Legal Safeguards

Abstract

The rapid growth of digital technology in Indonesia has reshaped the way children interact, learn, and socialize, but it has also introduced serious risks such as cyberbullying, online exploitation, and data privacy violations. This research aims to analyze the adequacy of Indonesia’s legal framework in protecting children’s rights in digital spaces and to explore ways of integrating such protection into digital governance without hampering technological progress. Employing a normative juridical (doctrinal) approach, the study examines national legislation in light of international human rights standards such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 25, the GDPR, and the Age-Appropriate Design Code. The findings indicate that Indonesia’s regulations are still predominantly system- and innovation-focused, leaving significant legal gaps in addressing child-specific digital risks. To overcome these shortcomings, the study recommends integrating the best interests of the child into all digital policies through child impact assessments, adopting safety by design and privacy by design principles, enhancing digital literacy among children and parents, and strengthening international cooperation. Such measures would enable Indonesia’s digital governance to maintain technological innovation while ensuring comprehensive protection of children in the digital environment.