VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Nowadays, the use of gadget in the society has been so close in their dayly life. It happens not only in adults but also in children. Even, it has been introduced to toddlers since early age. This phenomena in adults and children is worrying enough because it can cause the children’s growth and development to be disturbed. Their social interaction can be hampered. Anna Surti Ariani, a child and family psychologist says that the parents’ indecision in limiting the time for the children to play gadget mainly the online game is one of the factors why the children are addicted to the gadget. Another factor is that the parents’ literacy is less in technology. There are a lot of parents who are not smart in technology and they do not know which particular application or content that should be avoided by the children. Protecting the children from the bad impact of the internet can be done in many ways; one of them is by providing the safe and suitable web page for the children.

For Indonesia, the digital literacy understanding has been too urgent, remembering that the number of population migrating to cyber world has been so huge. The fast advancement of technology needs to be balanced by the intelligence in using modern techlonogy devices.Thus, the sophisticated technology advancement must be useful for the society’s life comprehensively, particularly in the social interaction. All of them have to start from early age of the children in recognizing digital devices.

According to Chairman of National Digital Literacy Movement, Dedy Permadi, it is important for the parents to make sure that their children gain the maximal advantage from the internet. The movement’s activity always gives training “to digital literacy” in 140 cities in Indonesia and there are about 90 thousands of people who have joined the training. The hope is that they are competentin digital literacy in accessing the internet  technically and in filtering various information and entertainment on the internet.

Multi-dimensional approach is needed in learning process of society so that they are educated digitally, smart in technology literacy and intelligent, creative and cultured. Amidst information distribution in digital media, digital literacy ability becomes the strategic thing. By the massive and extensive  socialization of the importance of digital literacy understanding, cooperation between thegovernment and society in providing the safe internet access for children and adults, certainly can realize the advantage of using positive internet. The true digital literacy pushes the digital netizens to be wiser in using the technology intrument.