Digital Citizenship
A Review of Citizenship Education
Runik Machfiroh, Sapriya Sapriya and Kokom Komalasari
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Civic Education, Digital Citizenship, Digital Citizenship Education, Digital Era, Digital Etiquette, Character.
Abstract: The development of digital technology as a feature of globalization has shortened the distance, space and time
and inevitably, like it or not, every young people and citizens must have brought changes of opinion, attitudes
and behavior of young citizen of Indonesia. Indonesian young citizens as internet users are always increasing.
However, the virtual world has risk content, conduct and contact for young citizens when accessing. So, this
study will determine the education for young citizens that digital etiquette is imperative. The method used is
based on the literature study on books and journals that discuss about digital citizenship, learning in digital
era and research about competence of digital citizens. The research type of investigation is based on variable
elements of digital citizenship skill such as digital etiquette, specifically is the teaching model for young
people. Teaching young people in digital era or digital citizenship education in the context of Indonesia
through civic education with the reinforcement of noble character. The implications of this research are to
reconstruct the rules of use and users of social media as well as appropriate educational models for digital
citizens.
1 INTRODUCTION
Digital technology can bring human advancement,
especially nation and state when citizens are wise in
the utilization of digital technology. Cloudry et al.
(2013) disclosed that digital resources are essential to
maintaining the cultural realm of citizenship on a
larger scale. Indonesia needs a mapping of usage and
users of digital media. The results of Dirgahayu
research (2007: 27) reveal that the tendency of
Indonesian society is still at the level of shock to the
rapidly growing of digital world. That is, in the digital
era required a competence of human resources /
citizens. In addition, Gani (2010) in his research
found that communication over the internet has
influenced opinion, attitude and even human
behavior. Changes in opinions, attitudes and behavior
can occur because the current era of globalization has
implications for openness between countries without
territorial boundaries through technology.
Technological developments have made new
products in the form of mass electronics that shorten
the distance, space, and time (Djahiri, 2006).
Technological developments are one of the markers
of the globalization era. Similar to the phrase Cogan
(1998) which explains that technology is one element
of the existence of globalization. The development of
global society, the boundaries of state territory in
terms of geography and politics are still relatively
fixed, but life in a country cannot possibly limit the
global power of information, innovation, and industry
that make up modern civilization (Budimansyah,
2008).
Users of internet or social media as part of the
digital world, has increased every year in Indonesia.
Based on research of Van (2015) which is presented
at Sharing Session event in Directorate of Research
and Community Service of Telkom University in
August 2015, that internet users in Indonesia always
increase every year, in 2015 it reached 19460 million.
Indonesia experienced a sharp increase associated
with the use of ICT. However, currently only part of
Indonesia that has been on level of the digital world
as buffer, such as social media or website that is used
for education and employment. Not a few that are still
at the level of shock to the digital world. Other
influences resulting from the opening of negative
access for children or adolescents with a lot of bad
information that flooded the internet (Setiawan,
2009). As a result, the existence of shock culture and
the influence of bad information, making the attitude
of communication, tolerance and care owned by
Machfiroh, R., Sapriya, S. and Komalasari, K.
Digital Citizenship - A Review of Citizenship Education.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 233-237
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
233

Indonesian citizens are still low. Where in the current
digital era the value to be upheld is tolerance and care
for others or specifically is the digital etiquette.
Based on the explanation above, the current
digital era makes young citizens to form a new culture
so that the rules and norms of cyberspace is unclear,
this is in accordance with what was disclosed by
Fostering (2016) that young citizens in the digital era
with unclear norms required a clear norm for digital
citizens. This means that the virtual world has risk
content, conduct and contact. According to research
by Machfiroh (2016), 75% of junior high school kids
have seen pornographic content, 93% do not bother to
download or share music illegally. This is in
accordance with Fostering (2016) that 89% of young
people in the US do not bother to download music
illegally. Risk conduct is related to cyberbullying. In
Indonesia, according to research results by Djuwita
Soesetio (2005), bullying is increasing through social
media. Meanwhile, in Europe, Australia, US, Korea
and Japan, cyberbullying is occurring in about 10 to
40 percent. In the terms of risk contact, it turns out
that currently in Indonesia, there are many hoax news
that are difficult to find the truth. Therefore, it is not
only the protective measures for network security that
are needed for young digital citizens but it is also need
a model of teaching for young people or digital
citizenship education as a necessity in the digital era.
Indonesian citizens with a total population of 290
million people, it turns out internet users as much as
51.5%. That is, it is a great potential in developing
Indonesian citizens in the digital era. Based on the
results of research by Machfiroh (2016) indicates that
junior high school students in the city of Bandung, for
85% are using mobile phones. APJII research in 2016
shows that 18.4% of internet users are aged of 10-24
years old on Java Island. In the United States PEW
research results that 75% of kids have smartphones
aged 12-17 years old (Buckingham, 2000) Currently,
parents or teachers are firstly prior experiencing
gadgets addiction. Children who do not get enough
parenting acts due to parents who get addicted to
digital device, the child can grow with negative
emotions and cannot control sadness, anxiety or even
anger well. Developed countries already limited the
use of mobile phones for children such as Germany
and Finland. This is in accordance with the results of
research of Buckingham (2000) that many children
lose their childhood due to consuming too much
electronic media, in the form of adult material so that
children quickly become adults.
The results of a survey conducted by Google in
2015 (APJII, 2016), said that currently Indonesia is in
the third rank of the world in accessing pornographic
websites, not to mention other forms of crime in the
form of humiliation and defamation, online fraud,
hacking and cracking and other forms of crime.
Starting from 2008 to 2014, it has been recorded that
most people violate in the realm of communication
skills namely defamation as 92% through digital
media. Prior to the revision of Law No.11 of 2016 on
Information and Electronic Transactions, conditions
in Indonesia need to be upgraded in law enforcement,
71% of law violations cases are regarding electronic
transactions, only 13% were found guilty, and the rest
with 23% are unclear of legal settlement. However,
after Law No.11 of 2016 on Information and
Electronic Transactions is passed, more and more
people who report cases related to misuse of
Information and Electronic Transactions. Based on
the researchers' analysis of the cases above,
Indonesian citizens have not been strong in the
competence of digital citizens related to digital
etiquette. So, it is required a teaching model or digital
citizenship education for young people/young citizen.
This is in line with Fostering (2016) opinion that in
the digital era, the most important for young citizens
is to teach them about digital literacy and digital
etiquette. The difference in this study is more
emphasizing about how is the model education for
digital etiquette specifically for Indonesia. Different
with research results of Ribble and Bailey (2007) in
schools in improving the ability to manage and
monitor the behavior in using technology, which
contained security, ethics, norm, and culture for
students that can be done through 9 elements. In
contrast to this research, researchers will further
examine the digital etiquette. This is based on
research results, which the number of people
reporting legal crimes through the digital world is
always increasing. Citizen competence in the digital
world required etiquette, because this digital
technology is fast, has no space and time limit and
easy. That is, citizen ethics is not only in the real
world, but it is also required in cyberspace. What is
ethics likes in cyberspace? So, how is the teaching
ethic? The education model about ethics and etiquette
in the digital era for citizens, especially in the context
of Indonesia is needed to prepare and keep young
Indonesian citizens sticking to the norms and ethics
of Indonesian culture that is the value of Pancasila.
The benefit of this study is to provide learning
solutions in the digital era related ethics and etiquette.
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
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2 RESEARCH METHODS
The method used is based on the literature study on
books and journals that discuss about digital
citizenship, learning in digital era and research about
competence of digital citizens. The research type of
investigation is based on variable elements of digital
citizenship skill such as digital etiquette, specifically
is the teaching model for young people or digital
citizenship education.
3 RESULTS DISCUSSION
Based on the observations of researchers, ethics in the
digital world, especially in Indonesia as follows: The
use of capital letters and lowercase should be noted,
that the use of capital letters especially in social media
or email signifies the enforcement that tends toward
the emotions. Sharing without reading first; this is
often the case even though the meaning of sharing
content that has not been read will disrupt and can be
labelled as fake news or "hoax". In the hoax counter
measures, there is already a national anti-hoax
campaign but it less effective in reducing hoax. It
needs a policy that is known for the citizen. Circular
letter from the Chief of the Indonesian National
Police, circular letter No. SE/06/X/2015 about Hate
Speech, in No.2 letter (f) of that letter, stated that
"hate speech can be a criminal act regulated in
Penal Code and other criminal provisions outside
Penal Code, in the form of; insult, defamation,
humiliation, misconduct, provocation, incitement,
and spreading false news and all of the above acts
have a purpose or may impact on acts of
discrimination, violence, disappearance of life, and /
or social conflict".
The rule is one of the regulations that is used to
manage how to communicate well through digital
media. In addition, special attention is needed to
provide information to children and adolescents about
the possible risks of a direct encounter with a newly
known person from cyberspace. Parents and teachers
need to know and engage in digital security programs
for children and adolescents. Messages about digital
security must be balanced by emphasizing the
benefits of the internet for education, research, and
commerce. Children and adolescents should continue
to be motivated to view and make the internet a
valuable source of information, and to utilize digital
technology to the fullest to assist education, increase
knowledge, expand their opportunities and
empowerment in achieving better quality of life.
Need to be developed the effective ways of promoting
digital security online and offline through all forms of
traditional and digital media channels, such as
television, radio, websites, or social media that are
often used by children and adolescents.
Digital development cannot be dammed;
education world has an active role in it. Technology
is a catalyst of change, which makes change to be
revolutionary, very fast and intensive (Suryadi,
2006). However, the positive side in the world of
education and knowledge, the revolution is happening
and had double dimension, that is connecting
astonishing modern brain research with the power of
information and knowledge that can be accessed
quickly and easily through information and
communication technology. Suryadi (2006) asserts
that the joint revolution of internet-computer-world
wide web has formed a new generation, with new
values, new social styles, new cultures, and even new
economies called the digital economy.
Based on the opinion above, the digital era has
brought a new world, a new culture that requires a
norm and ethic in a new culture. The research results
of Isman (2014) measured the development of 9
scales of citizen digital competence by developing 9
citizens’ digital competence from Ribble and Bailey
(2007) concept which must be owned by students in
schools towards digital citizen in Turkey. It turns out
that in Turkey, to develop ethics competence it goes
to the planting of responsibility to each student. The
development of digital citizen is not only Turkey, but
Ribble and Bailey (2007) developed three concepts:
respect, educate and protect in South Korea, China,
USA and New Zealand as one of the goals in digital
citizenship. This research focuses on variables that
differ from previous research that leads to etiquette
and ethic in the Indonesian context.
Preparing and equipping young citizens to
become digital citizens is very important in this
current era, considering the risks when young people
surf in cyberspace. According to the researchers,
based on data by Machfiroh (2016) Google (2015);
Van (2015) that in Indonesia with high quantity and
intensity of internet usage, the first thing that must be
understood and owned by young people is the values
that have been embedded inside them. That is, the
most important thing in shaping digital citizens is to
instill the value that becomes the foundation of life.
This is in accordance with the recommendations in
Fostering (2016) study that it is imperative to teach
etiquette and ethic.
The strategy in teaching etiquette and ethic in this
research is based on the values of Pancasila that is
noble character. Noble character is the basic value
that must be owned by young citizens in the digital
Digital Citizenship - A Review of Citizenship Education
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era. Noble character became an important point in
this research because noble character became one of
the goals of national education in Indonesia which is
contained in Article 3 of the Law on 20 National
Education System in 2003 as well as it is contained in
the Qur'an and hadith as the Prophet Muhammad's
traits, on the other hands, in the previous research
(Ribble and Bailey, 2007; Anais, 2007; Isman, 2014;
Fostering, 2016) on digital citizens in various
countries were using respect variables. It differs in the
author's thought that the noble character which
consists of "honest / sidiq; smart / fatonah;
trustworthy / amanah; deliver news / communicative
/ tablig. The author's analysis determines that 4
indicators of the noble character variable is needed in
the digital era. Remember, these four value indicators
are strongly related to each other to create civilized
and intelligent digital citizens.
Who Mastered Social Media Will Master the
world? That is, Indonesia is ranked at the top 2 of the
world, social media should be utilized so that
Indonesia can control the world. Cloudry et al. (2013)
state that local community digital networking clubs
forming an identity. According to the result of
research by Honneth (2007), digital media provides
access to the collective process of identity formation,
and mutual trust and recognition extended beyond
digital meaning (Claoudry et al., 2013).
Remembering not a few people who are always
negative in thinking and arguing and inciting people.
Indonesia has a high ranking in using Facebook and
Twitter, this can be used as a tool to spread
civilization to other users. Therefore, the purpose of
teaching with the development of noble character has
a paradigm:
 Young citizens in cyberspace must have honest
nature which means that the news submitted
must be honest and should not lie. If every
young citizen has this trait, HOAX news will
not exist (Abduallah, 2014);
 Following honest, every child must also be
smart in using the internet, which means skills
in using and should know about the security
(Abduallah, 2014);
 Not only enough to be honest and intelligent
but also trustworthy means that accuracy,
respect and responsibility must be owned
(Abduallah, 2014);
 And the last is the process of communicating,
in cyberspace things related to ethic and
etiquette is still difficult to do. However, this
study provides an alternative strengthening of
noble character in the digital era.
Considering that digital citizenship is that they are
digitally connected and supplemented with 'offline'
social practices and digital resources are vital to
maintaining the culture of citizenship on a larger scale
(Cloudry et al., 2013). Therefore, in maintaining
Indonesia culture that is embedded in the values of
Pancasila both offline and online, noble character can
be used as a variable of reinforcing the value of
growth for the young generation in learning as a
character. This is in accordance to the thought by
Naisbit (2010) that citizens should think globally and
act locally with no regard to the local cultural identity.
The following is a description of the noble
character cultivation strategy in education model in
the digital era (digital citizenship education):
Family
School
Offline Environment
Online Environment
Figure 1: The Development of Noble Character in the
Digital Era.
The cultivation of honest, smart, trustworthy and
tablig values as noble character that must be
possessed by young citizens in the digital era can be
done by behavioristic approach, habituation,
exemplary and internalization in their lives. The
cultivation approach of noble character cannot be
done in one vehicle but must be holistic in every area
of child life that is formal, informal, non formal and
cyberspace. The movement of noble character should
be encouraged through online.
The group can provide knowledge related to
obligations that must be done by citizens so citizens
are not only good but also become smart after using
digital media because the obtained information is
correct and provide comments or opinion in a
responsible manner. However, the existence of
strength in education, especially the Civics is not
enough if there is no legal force that governs
Honest
SmartTrustwothy
Tabliq
Exemplary
Habituation
Internalization
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236

4 CONCLUSIONS
This research only explains the strategy in teaching
children in the digital era. The implications of this
research are to reconstruct the rules of use and users
of social media as well as appropriate educational
models for digital citizen’s statistical measurement.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher
Education (KEMENRISTEKDIKTI) who has given
scholarship for doctorate program of civic education
at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) and
Directorate of Research and Community Service of
Telkom University who has provided facilities in the
smoothness of the research process.
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