JAKARTA, Sept 18 (Bernama) — Eight in 10 parents in Indonesia are unaware of their children’s online activities, exposing millions of young internet users to heightened risks in the digital space, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs has warned.
Its minister Meutya Hafid said that of Indonesia’s 65 million children under the age of 14, about 70 per cent are already active internet users.
“More than 226 million citizens, or nearly 81 per cent of the population, are now online, spending an average of eight hours and 40 minutes a day on the internet.
“This is a major challenge. One solution lies in large-scale digital literacy initiatives,” she said in a statement.
Meutya stressed that the ministry cannot tackle the flood of online information alone. Close cooperation with the media is crucial to boosting digital literacy across all layers of society.
She admitted that public messages from the media are often more widely heard than those from the government.
“The media interpret these issues far more quickly than the government. We need to complement and collaborate, especially on literacy, amid the increasingly complex digital era,” she said.
Meutya also highlighted the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI), noting that it is outpacing other technologies, and cited Albania’s appointment of an AI “minister”.
Albania has appointed the world’s first AI-generated government “minister”, a digital assistant named Diella, as part of Prime Minister Edi Rama’s initiative to curb corruption and boost transparency.
— BERNAMA