Yohana Yembise believes that cellphones should not be allowed in elementary schools and that technology could negatively affect communication between children and parents, which could then lead to child abuse.
The Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister made the announcement at an anti-child abuse event at Plaza Senayan that was conducted by UNICEF.
Yembise noted that preventing kids from accessing cellphones while at school would stop not only pornography from being shared, but also an addiction to technology, according to The Jakarta Post.
Likewise, the Indonesian minister claimed that the usage of mobile phones at school could lead to communication problems within a family. Once the children have become supposedly isolated due to mobile phone addiction, child abuse becomes a possibility.
During the UNICEF campaign, Yembise remarked how a child abuser admitted that a feeling of loneliness led to quitting school, seeing questionable movies with peers and eventually sexually harassing children. Yembise clarified that the abuser felt no connection and concern from parents.
Moreover, the minister is currently analyzing the child abuse issue in Indonesia and said that a presidential decree could be made if the problem becomes too much to handle for the country.
Minister Yembise reminded the people at the UNICEF event that while having excellent grades are noteworthy, parents should still share good values and enough time with children.
In other news, a recent UNICEF finding noted that child marriage in several African countries would continue to increase in number for the next 35 years, according to Al Jazeera America.
From an already alarming 125 million child brides, the number could go as high as 310 million by 2050 if no remarkable policy changes are undertaken.
The report, which was delivered during the African Union Girls Summit in Zambia, included the observation that nations experiencing great economic development were more likely than poor countries to significantly reduce the number of child marriages.
UNICEF statistics specialist Claudia Cappa explained that some parents in Africa perceive child marriage as an acceptable way to have physical or economic stability, even during times of conflict.
