PP Tunas: Prabowo and Gibran’s Strategy to Protect Children in the Digital World

One of the government’s policies in the technology sector during the first two years of President Prabowo Subianto’s administration was the implementation of Government Regulation No. 17 of 2025 on the Governance of Electronic System Operators in Child Protection (PP Tunas). This regulation serves as the basis for the government to restrict children’s access to high-risk digital services, including social media.

Prabowo enacted PP Tunas on 28 March 2025. Through this policy, the government requires electronic system operators (PSE) to identify potential risks posed by their services to children and to implement age verification mechanisms.

“The state is here to ensure that every Indonesian child can grow up in a safe and healthy digital environment. Today, the Tunas policy embodies our commitment to protecting children from various digital threats and risks, whilst ensuring they reap the full benefits of technological advancements,” said Prabowo upon issuing this regulation.

This policy is one of the most comprehensive globally in terms of child protection in the digital space. This step has been taken amidst the growing threats faced by children when accessing the internet, ranging from age-inappropriate content to the risk of digital crime.

With the implementation of the Tunas Government Regulation, Indonesia has become the first country to implement a large-scale child protection policy in the digital space, covering approximately 70 million children under the age of 16.

Through this regulation, the government has set age limits for children’s access to digital services, including social media, based on risk levels and the requirement for parental or guardian consent.

Under the regulations, children under the age of 13 are only permitted to have accounts on low-risk digital products and services specifically designed for children, subject to parental consent.

Meanwhile, children aged 13–16 may access medium-risk digital services, and only those aged 16–18 are granted full access to high-risk digital services such as social media, subject to parental consent.

In practice, every platform will be required to align its products, features and services with the applicable regulations. This can be achieved by restricting access or deleting accounts for minors.

The Tunas Government Regulation comes into force on 28 March 2026. This regulation serves as a technical guideline for digital platforms in fulfilling their obligations to protect children in the digital space, such as online games and social media.

Implementation of these regulations will begin gradually by closing the accounts of children under 16 on high-risk platforms. At the start of this implementation, platforms ordered to deactivate children’s accounts include Roblox, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and Bigo Live.

Platforms are given the opportunity to improve their services by strengthening content moderation, removing features that could potentially harm children, restricting contact with strangers, and ensuring that the content displayed is appropriate for the users’ age group.

The regulation also requires a commitment from digital platforms to build safer services, whilst fostering collaboration between the government, platforms, families, the education sector and the wider community to create a healthy digital environment for children.

“The bottom line is clear: our children face increasingly real threats. These range from exposure to pornography, cyberbullying and online scams, to, most importantly, addiction,” said Meutya Hafid, Minister for Communications and Digital Affairs.

According to Komdigi’s monitoring and evaluation, a number of platforms have taken steps and adjusted certain features on their respective platforms in order to implement the child protection policies set out in the Tunas Government Regulation.

“Six months after the implementation of the Tunas Regulation, we have recorded that a total of 28 million Indonesian children’s accounts are now protected from various risks. This is thanks to the contributions of various platforms in the digital sphere,” said Meutya.

In addition, more than 200 digital platforms have submitted self-assessments to the government. As of September, the government had designated and verified 60 products, services and features (PLFs) across various platforms based on their risk profiles.

“As of 6 September 2026, 60 PLFs have been designated and verified, along with their risk profiles, comprising 22 PLFs with a high-risk profile and 38 PLFs with a low-risk profile,” said Meutya.

Meutya stated that platforms which have not yet carried out a self-assessment are still given until the end of 2026 to do so. If a platform fails to carry out this assessment, the government may determine the risk profile of each platform itself.

The government has also urged digital platforms that have not yet complied with the provisions of the Tunas Government Regulation to immediately follow the applicable rules.

Under Komdigi Ministerial Regulation No. 9 of 2026, which serves as the implementing regulation for the Tunas Government Regulation, several sanctions apply should a platform refuse to comply with the rules, including administrative sanctions such as the issuance of a warning letter, temporary suspension of access, and termination of access.

Although platforms have sought to restrict access to children’s accounts, Komdigi revealed that many children under the age of 16 falsify their age to access social media. This has become one of the main challenges in the implementation of the Tunas Government Regulation.

Deputy Minister for Communications and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria stated that survey results cited by the government indicate that three out of five children falsify their age in order to continue accessing social media.

“There is a survey showing that out of five children, three are certain to have falsified their age to gain access to social media. This has become commonplace,” said Nezar.

According to him, a number of platforms have actually begun to implement stricter systems. Through the use of algorithms, platforms can recognise patterns of account usage suspected to belong to minors, including when accessing inappropriate content…