Legal Protection for Child Victims of Cyberbullying in Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines the adequacy of legal protection for child victims of cyberbullying on social media in Indonesia and formulates an integrated, victim-centred protection model. A normative legal method was employed through statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches. Primary legal materials include the Child Protection Law, the Electronic Information and Transactions Law as amended in 2024, the Personal Data Protection Law, Government Regulation Number 17 of 2025, Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Regulation Number 9 of 2026, and Law Number 3 of 2026 on Witness and Victim Protection. The findings show that Indonesia has moved from a predominantly offence-based approach toward risk-based digital platform governance. Nevertheless, protection remains fragmented because cyberbullying has no uniform legal definition, reporting and evidence-preservation mechanisms are not child-friendly, platform responsibilities are insufficiently connected to victim recovery, and coordination among families, schools, platforms, and law-enforcement institutions remains weak. An integrated model should combine age-appropriate design, rapid content restriction, evidence preservation, confidential reporting, psychosocial recovery, restorative measures for child perpetrators, and effective administrative accountability for platforms.