Jakarta, IO – Deputy head of gender equality of the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (WECP) Ministry Agustina Erni states that children have the right to access information appropriate for their ages.
In today’s digital age with limitless information, children have become more vulnerable to age-inappropriate content, such as hoaxes, pornography, violence and radicalism, said Agustina in a virtual talk show “Child-appropriate Information: Smart information, Outstanding Children” (3/6).
She said if children are constantly exposed to harmful online content without proper parental or adult supervision, they will suffer from detrimental impacts such as gadget addiction, cyberbullying, cybercrime, online gender-based violence and internet-facilitated sexual offense.
“Providing and disseminating appropriate information for children is the responsibility of us all, the central government and regional administrations, parents, families and members of the public,” said Agustina.
The WECP Ministry will make every effort to ensure children can obtain appropriate and intelligent information, or child-friendly information which reflects their age, level of maturity and mental and social development. Age-appropriate and child-friendly information will prepare outstanding Indonesian children toward Golden Indonesia 2045.
The provision of child-friendly information is one of the indicators of a child-friendly regency/ city. To this end, the Ministry has developed a Child-Friendly Information Center (CFIC) that focuses on providing child-relevant information with a child-friendly service.
To maintain information quality, the facility and child-friendly services, the Ministry has conducted a CFIC standardization process in 2021. It resulted in 21 standardized CFICs and 15 certified CFIC administrators.
“It is also important to be involved in forums on children at the national and regional levels,” said Agustina. These forums have been instrumental in providing and disseminating child-friendly information. “They have become part of the solutions to our common concerns regarding inappropriate information. They are more than just a government program. Now is the time for us to learn and collaborate with children to decide what information they need and how they would like it delivered,” explained Agustina. (eka)