In Indonesia, calls mount for parents to protect children from online gambling

A new government task force established last week to curtail rampant online gambling has found indications that 80,000 children below the age of 10 and 440,000 of those aged 10 to 20 had engaged in online gambling. These age groups made up around 13 percent of the total number of some 4 million people engaged in online gambling. The task force did not reveal the time period that these incidents took place.

Child protection agency the KPAI described the numbers of children and adolescents involved in online gambling as alarming and blamed the incidents on the lack of parental supervision of their children’s use of the internet.

“On the one hand, there are parents who have the skills to teach digital literacy to their children, but they are [too] busy [to make time for their children],” KPAI commissioner Kawiyan told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

“But there are also parents who actually have time but they don’t have enough knowledge on digital literacy. [In some cases,] children know more about digital technology than their parents. This becomes a problem [because] parental supervision of their children’s activities is crucial.”

Kawiyan said the KPAI, a government-sanctioned independent agency, found that the content of online gambling games and advertisements on social media were often “designed with attractive themes and graphics to appeal to children.”

He called on the government to help raise the awareness of parents about the dangers of online gambling on their children and to block access to online gambling websites.

“The government should also help parents recognize whether their children have developed gambling addictions and support the children and their families with treatment and counseling,” he said.

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Online gambling has become a national concern following incidents of self-destructive behavior and crimes linked to gambling addiction in adults and teenagers. Last year, there were reports of two teenagers stealing motorcycles parked on a street in Surabaya, East Java, and a teenager stealing money belonging to his parents in Makassar, South Sulawesi, to make payments for online gambling.

Khotimun Susanti of the Legal Aid Foundation of Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice (LBH Apik) urged that parents not only limit their children’s use of gadgets, but more importantly, talk to their children about the negative impacts of online gambling.

“At the same time, the government should put more effort into educating students at schools on how to use the internet in a safer way,” she said. “While education on antibullying [has been incorporated into school’s curriculum], the discussion on online gambling also needs to be included [in students’ learning process].”

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Kurniawan Satria Denta, a pediatrician at Mayapada Hospital Kuningan in Jakarta, said that online gambling in children and teenagers should be of greater concern to the government since gambling addiction in children was more complex to treat than that in adults.

“In adolescence, the brain is still developing and not yet matured. Their ability to discern what is good and bad and make decisions is not as great as for adults. So, if children develop an addiction, the consequences will last longer and be more difficult to handle,” he said.