Criminal Liability of Digital Platforms for Facilitating Online Child Sexual Exploitation

Abstract

The rapid development of information and communication technology in the digital era has fundamentally transformed how society interacts, while creating a dark space for transnational crimes such as Online Child Sexual Exploitation (OCSE), with digital platforms ranging from social media to instant messaging applications often serving as the primary medium for disseminating child sexual exploitation material, yet the legal regime protecting electronic system providers tends to hide behind the safe harbor doctrine, granting immunity on the grounds that they are merely passive intermediaries, creating an accountability gap when platform algorithms actively distribute illegal content and companies fail to implement adequate moderation for cost efficiency. This research aims to formulate a framework of criminal liability for digital platforms facilitating child sexual exploitation in cyberspace, using a normative legal method with statutory and conceptual approaches. The findings indicate that platforms can no longer rely absolutely on intermediary immunity when facing extraordinary crimes against children; under corporate criminal liability theory, they may be held accountable if proven to have a corporate culture tolerating violations or lacking safety-by-design mechanisms, requiring criminal law reform in Indonesia to regulate mandatory reporting obligations and proportional sanctions, including revenue-based fines and license revocation.