Beyond Regulatory Awareness: Family Communication Patterns in Negotiating Digital Child Protection Principles under PP TUNAS in Mempawah Regency
Widha Anistya Suwarso- Ghea Rae Sabrina

Universitas Tanjungpura

Abstract

The rapid expansion of children^s digital engagement increased the urgency of effective digital child protection, yet regulatory measures alone could not guarantee safe online practices within families. This paradox was evident in Mempawah Regency, West Kalimantan, where digital literacy ranked among the highest in the province, yet family empowerment in digital protection remained comparatively low. In response to growing digital risks, Indonesia introduced Government Regulation No. 17 of 2025 on the Governance of Electronic Systems for Child Protection (PP TUNAS), positioning families as central actors in safeguarding children in digital spaces. Yet little was known about how these protective principles were enacted in everyday family life, particularly when parents^ awareness of the formal regulation varied considerably. This study examined how families in Mempawah negotiated digital child protection through everyday communication. A qualitative case study approach was employed, involving in-depth interviews with parents, children aged 13-17, and institutional informants from the regency^s social and child protection affairs agency. Data were analyzed thematically, using Family Communication Patterns Theory as an analytical lens to interpret how rules, supervision, trust, and children^s autonomy were negotiated within families. The findings revealed that family practices in digital child protection were shaped less by formal regulatory awareness than by everyday communication dynamics, exposing a disconnect between policy design and lived family practice. The study concluded that strengthening digital child protection required family-centered communication strategies that enabled households to internalize and enact child protection principles in daily life, offering empirical grounding for more responsive, communication-based child protection governance.

Keywords: child online safety policy- digital child protection- family communication patterns- family negotiation- Mempawah Regency

Topic: Strategic Communication in the Digital Sphere: Cultivating Civic Trust through Data-Driven Approaches (Digital Communication- Public Communication Strategy- Civic Trust)