From Indonesia to ASEAN: building momentum for children’s rights online in Southeast Asia
Governments and experts convened at the ASEAN ICT Forum on Child Online Protection in Kuala Lumpur, setting the stage for a renewed Regional Plan of Action that embeds safety-by-design principles.
ASEAN member states are set to adopt a renewed Regional Plan of Action on the Protection of Children from All Forms of Online Exploitation and Abuse under the Philippines’ upcoming Chairmanship. The new plan, expected to mark a significant shift towards a more holistic approach to children’s rights in the digital world, would strengthen the implementation of safety-by-design principles, moving beyond a downstream focus on violence against children.
This shift could not come at a more critical time.
Around 90% of children in Southeast Asia are already using AI-powered tools, over half of daily active users of online games popular with children live in the region, and 79% of 8 to 18-year-olds there report encountering online risks. In response to tech companies’ failure to provide age-appropriate experiences, countries in the wider region are preparing to restrict children’s access to the online world. ASEAN’s renewed plan offers a different path forward, emphasising the need to design technology with children’s rights and safety at its core, rather than patching harms with downstream tools or shifting responsibility onto parents.
The momentum for this regional shift has been building across Southeast Asia. Following two years of 5Rights engagement, Indonesia became the first Global Majority country to adopt binding regulation for age-appropriate design, requiring tech companies to proactively assess and mitigate the risks their digital products and services pose to children, by design and default. This achievement has reverberated at regional level as clear evidence that an upstream, rights-based approach is both valuable and achievable.
This shared direction was front and centre at the 2025 ASEAN ICT Forum on Child Online Protection hosted in Kuala Lumpur, where governments and experts convened to strengthen children’s digital safety across the region. Marie-Ève Nadeau, 5Rights Head of International Affairs, emphasised the critical need for systemic solutions:
“Parents cannot outperform systems engineered to exploit children’s psychology to keep them engaged. If the problem is the system, then the solution must be at that level. Safety, privacy and wellbeing must be embedded by default – shifting accountability to those who design the digital world, not the children navigating it”
Marie-Ève Nadeau, 5Rights Head of International Affairs
Bridging this gap cannot be achieved by any country alone. Cross-border cooperation, knowledge sharing, and building on established standards will be critical to implementing the renewed Regional Plan of Action, promoting regulatory coherence and keeping pace with rapid technological changes so that companies start putting children’s rights, needs and voices at the heart of every decision.