Balancing Religion, Technology and Parenthood: Indonesian Muslim Mothers’ Supervision of Children’s Internet Use

Abstract

As technology adoption accelerates in Indonesia, the growing use of the internet by children has triggered moral panics and led to calls for greater parental mediation of children’s internet use. Concerns typically center around access to online pornography and other deleterious content. The polemic surrounding these issues has taken on a distinctly moralistic and religious tone in this predominantly Muslim country. Cultural and ideological norms in Indonesia dictate that within the household, mothers are to play a key role in the supervision of children, thus placing them at the forefront of this drive to inculcate positive internet use amongst their children. This study used in-depth interviews to explore the perceptions that Indonesian Muslim mothers have of the internet, the strategies they employ to mediate the internet for their children and how their religious beliefs influence these strategies. We found that mothers actively manage their children’s internet consumption and devise different mediation strategies to ensure that their children use the internet in ways that are congruent with Islamic principles. The more religious families strive to strengthen their faiths to meet the onslaught of un-Islamic internet and media content, while less devout Muslims see online media as beneficial and horizon broadening and therefore welcome rather than resist them.