Restricting AI Use Among Basic and Secondary Education Students: A Thematic Study of Policy Discourse
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62503/ijer.1.1.45-58Keywords:
artificial intelligence in education, digital education policy, policy framing analysis, cognitive debt, children's digital literacyAbstract
The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in education has prompted varied policy responses worldwide. Indonesia joined this trend by issuing a Joint Decree of Seven Ministers (SKB) on 12 March 2026 restricting AI use among basic and secondary education students. This study analyzed the justificatory themes articulated by the Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Cultural Affairs (Menko PMK) and assessed their consistency with literature on cognitive debt, brain rot, and adolescent mental health. Using a descriptive qualitative design, the study combined thematic and framing analysis of a single primary data source, an official statement reconstructed from a news article, compared with academic sources published between 2021 and 2026. The analysis identified six themes: the restriction's scope, the cognitive-risk rationale, the differentiation between permitted and restricted AI use, cross-ministerial legitimacy, risk-mitigation framing, and adolescents digital-exposure context. The screen-time and mental-health arguments proved consistent with the literature, whereas the cognitive-debt argument oversimplified an ongoing debate over whether access restriction or design-based intervention more effectively addresses AI overreliance. To our knowledge, this is the first study to position a policymaker's official statement as the primary unit of analysis for an AI education-restriction policy in Indonesia, offering a meeting point between GenAI policy studies, cognitive-dependence research, adolescent mental-health literature, and Indonesian digital-literacy studies that have developed in isolation from one another. This study extends framing theory to educational technology policy beyond developed countries and underscores the need for technical guidelines emphasizing interaction design and differentiation across education levels, rather than uniform access restriction.
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