“Of course, the Jakarta Provincial Government will fully support any policy made by the central government to ensure that the incident at SMAN 72 will not happen again,” Pramono said at City Hall on Monday, expressing deep concern and hope that such a tragedy would never recur.
“The main point is that this must never happen again. Therefore, whatever policies are issued by the central government, Jakarta’s government will give its full support,” he added.
On Sunday night, Minister of State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi confirmed that the government is exploring ways to reduce the negative impact of online gaming among young people.
“We need to consider restricting online games and identify ways to address their negative influence and impacts,” the minister remarked.
Hadi noted that several games are believed to contain inappropriate content that could harm the morals of Indonesia’s youth. He specifically mentioned PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) as one of the games under close government scrutiny and potentially subject to a future ban.
“It is possible that some of these online games contain harmful elements that could negatively influence our future generations,” Hadi said.
Two explosions were reported at SMAN 72, located within a navy housing complex in North Jakarta, around noon on Friday during prayer time. The blasts affected at least 96 people, some of whom suffered burns, hearing and vision problems, and shrapnel wounds.
The National Police (Polri) later revealed that a student, who was also injured and underwent surgery, was allegedly responsible for the blasts.
Public debate on social media has split into two camps, one speculating that the suspect’s actions stemmed from emotional distress possibly linked to bullying, and another attributing them to exposure to violent online content.
The latter view gained traction after authorities discovered two toy gun replicas near the scene, one of which bore writings associated with extremism and references to perpetrators of mass violence abroad.
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Translator: Lifia Mawaddah, Kuntum Khaira Riswan
Editor: Primayanti
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