Challenges and opportunities of urbanization and digitalization in Indonesia:

Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, with around 85 million children, who form nearly one-third of the national population. Indonesia has maintained strong economic growth for the last two decades, but the economic gain has been accompanied by rising inequality and urbanization; Indonesia has the fifth largest urban population in the world (138 million in 2017) and about 53% of the population now live in urban areas – many of them in urban informal settlements or slums. Many families are moving from the villages to the cities to look for better opportunities and tens of millions are now living in underdeveloped urban areas. Recent reports show that nearly 13.8 million of the country’s children in Indonesia are living below the national poverty line. In the last two decades, children and adolescents from the urban slums are increasingly involved in urban violence, ranging from school brawls and soccer hooliganism to motorcycle gangs, thuggery and terrorism.1, 2  These incidences indicate how the community needs to raise their awareness to prevent the use of children and adolescents for violent criminal acts. In which the school can play an important role to connect the children with local social support systems and away from dysfunctional families and high-risk environments.

Digital revolution has arrived in Indonesian cities, meaning that the internet plays an increasing role in Indonesia.3  Around 84% of Indonesians own at least one smart phone and the Indonesian Internet audience had 100 million users in 2015. Half of the “netizens” (net citizens) in Indonesia are under age 30, living in the urban areas. There were 64 million Facebook users in Indonesia in 2014 with 56 % of this group 16-24 years old. Jakarta has recently been called the world’s number one Twitter city for the number of tweets sent. Indonesian children and adolescents may be exposed to harmful or adult content without adult supervision. They are vulnerable to cyber bullying and illegal hacking of systems. There is also an increasing concern about online recruitment and exploitation of children by organized crime or terrorist groups in Indonesia. Therefore, the Indonesian government is very interested in finding ways to face these challenges focusing on the role of new technologies as relevant to the future options and vulnerabilities of the urban youth in Indonesia.4  On one hand, digital innovation has increased the access to information, services and other benefits but on the other hand, it also poses a threat to children and adolescents’ wellbeing, safety and development making the vulnerable even more vulnerable. Some of the solutions to this problem lie in smart use of data and digital technologies.