Policy Discourse on Child Protection from Cyberbullying and Online Sexual Violence: A Thematic Analysis in Indonesia

Abstract

Cyberbullying and online sexual violence pose an escalating threat to children in the digital era, yet studies juxtaposing Indonesian policy statements with recent academic evidence remain limited. This study maps the main themes, convergences, and differences in policy emphasis between UNICEF Indonesia and the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, synthesizing these with the 2021-2026 literature. A descriptive qualitative design using document and discourse analysis was employed, collecting two official statements from key informants and secondary data, coded through six-phase thematic analysis. Results showed both informants described an increasing trend, a shift in incident locus toward private spaces, and psychological effects from digital traces permanence. They converged on family digital literacy but diverged on regulation versus content enforcement. Analysis revealed tension between the assumption that digital literacy creates a safe disclosure space for children, and literature showing parental mediation effectiveness varies. The study concludes family digital literacy is necessary but insufficient for digital child protection in Indonesia, recommending policy mechanisms that systematically bridge awareness and parenting practice. Its novelty lies in treating international and domestic policy statements as a single, synchronized discourse rather than analyzing them separately, an approach not previously applied to Indonesia; its originality rests on juxtaposing this discourse against empirical literature on parental mediation rather than relying solely on normative-legal analysis. The study contributes theoretically by distinguishing normative awareness from families' practical capacity as separate sub-mechanisms of institutional response, and practically by informing policymakers, schools, and families on the limits of digital literacy as a stand-alone solution.