Jakarta — Indonesian online media outlets frame Government Regulation No. 17 of 2025, known as PP TUNAS, in significantly different ways when reporting on child protection in the digital space. The finding comes from Santiani and Teguh Priyo Sadono of the Master’s Program in Communication Studies at Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya. Their study examined coverage published by Kompas.com, Detik.com, and Tempo.co between March 2025 and March 2026 to understand how media organizations construct public perceptions of the regulation’s legitimacy, implementation, and controversy.
PP TUNAS has become an important component of Indonesia’s digital governance framework because it regulates the protection of children in online spaces. The regulation was signed on March 28, 2025, and became effective on March 28, 2026. It requires eight high-risk platforms—TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, and Roblox—to implement age verification and restrict access for users under 16.
The policy emerged amid growing concerns about children’s exposure to risks online. The study highlights concerns including cyberbullying, online child sexual exploitation, harmful content, and other digital activities that can threaten children’s safety. These conditions provide an important basis for stronger child-protection regulation, while also generating debate about privacy, digital surveillance, children’s rights, and age-verification mechanisms.
Rather than simply examining what the media reported, Santiani and Sadono analyzed how each outlet selected and emphasized particular information. The researchers applied Robert M. Entman’s framing model, which examines four elements of news coverage: how a problem is defined, how its causes are explained, how moral judgments are constructed, and what solutions are proposed. This approach allowed the researchers to examine how media perspectives can shape public understanding of government policy.
The study analyzed 37 news articles, consisting of 12 articles from Kompas.com, 13 from Detik.com, and 12 from Tempo.co. The articles were purposively selected based on their relevance to PP TUNAS and were published between March 2025 and March 2026. The analysis followed four stages of the policy cycle, from enactment and public socialization to implementation and initial evaluation.
The findings identified three distinct framing patterns. Kompas.com predominantly used a normative-cognitive legitimacy frame, presenting PP TUNAS as morally necessary and socially appropriate for protecting children. Detik.com adopted a pragmatic-informative legitimacy frame, treating the regulation primarily as a policy that the public needed to understand and follow. Tempo.co, meanwhile, initially used a critical-investigative resistance frame before shifting toward a balanced critical-constructive frame during implementation.
The differences became particularly visible in how the three outlets defined the central problem. Kompas.com emphasized the urgency of child protection and used digital-risk data to support the need for regulation. Detik.com focused more heavily on administrative aspects, including restricted platforms and changes to user access. Tempo.co initially questioned the regulatory process itself, highlighting limited public consultation, technical readiness, and data-protection concerns.
The study also links framing differences to ownership structures, editorial traditions, and the political-economic positions of the media organizations. Kompas.com relied heavily on government, medical, and social-sector sources. Across the 13 Detik.com articles analyzed, critical sources such as SAFEnet and academics questioning the policy were absent. Tempo.co used a broader range of sources, including government officials as well as SAFEnet, CfDS UGM, KPAI, IDAI, and other critical voices.
Tempo.co’s change in framing represents one of the study’s most significant findings. During the policy-formation stage, its coverage focused more heavily on the process and accountability of the regulation. Once PP TUNAS entered the implementation stage, the focus shifted toward whether the regulation was actually working. The researchers describe this transformation as legitimacy migration, referring to a shift in public contestation from asking whether a policy is fundamentally valid to asking whether it is empirically effective.
The implementation data examined in the study show that PP TUNAS took effect on March 28, 2026. By April 10, 2026, TikTok had deactivated approximately 780,000 children’s accounts, rising to 1.7 million by April 29. Meta was reported to have achieved full compliance, while YouTube received a written reprimand from the Ministry of Communication and Digital for continued non-compliance.
The findings demonstrate that child protection in the digital environment is not solely a regulatory issue. It is also a communication issue because media coverage influences how the public understands government policy. News organizations can frame PP TUNAS as a necessary child-protection measure, an administrative regulation that must be followed, or a policy that requires continued critical oversight.
Santiani and Sadono also emphasize the need to balance child protection with children’s digital participation rights. Age verification may help reduce children’s exposure to digital risks, but such mechanisms must also protect personal data and prevent the development of invasive surveillance infrastructure. The study therefore recommends strict data-minimization standards, safeguards against excessive surveillance, independent audits of regulatory effectiveness, and stronger digital literacy among children, families, and educational institutions.
Ultimately, the study shows that Indonesian online media function as competing spaces for constructing the meaning of PP TUNAS. The different approaches taken by Kompas.com, Detik.com, and Tempo.co demonstrate that news coverage does more than communicate regulatory facts. It also shapes how society understands the legitimacy, benefits, risks, and effectiveness of child-protection policies in the digital environment.
Author Profiles
Santiani — Master’s Program in Communication Studies, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya.
Teguh Priyo Sadono — Master’s Program in Communication Studies, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya.
Research Source
Title: Framing the Regulatory State: Media Contestation Between Legitimacy and Resistance in Indonesian Children's Social Media Governance
Journal: East Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (EAJMR), Vol. 5, No. 7, 2026, pp. 3059–3076.
DOI: 10.55927/eajmr.v5i7.216
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.55927/eajmr.v5i7.216
Journal Link: https://journaleajmr.my.id/index.php/eajmr
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