Challenges in Law Enforcement Against Online Gambling Promotion by Social Media Influencers: Protecting Indonesia's Digital Generation

Abstract

The increasing use of social media has facilitated online gambling promotion by influencers, creating significant challenges for criminal law enforcement in Indonesia. This research aims to analyze the challenges in enforcing criminal law against online gambling promotion by social media influencers and to formulate an integrated criminal law policy to strengthen legal protection for Indonesia's digital generation. This study employs normative legal research using statutory, conceptual, case, and comparative approaches, with qualitative analysis of primary and secondary legal materials. The findings indicate that ineffective law enforcement is caused by regulatory ambiguity regarding influencer criminal liability, limited institutional coordination, technological disparities, evidentiary difficulties, jurisdictional constraints, and the normalization of gambling-related content in the digital environment. To address these challenges, criminal law policy should be reformulated through clearer regulation of influencer liability, stronger inter-agency coordination, enhanced digital forensic capabilities, preventive legal education, greater accountability of digital platform providers, and the adoption of relevant comparative legal approaches. The novelty of this research lies in proposing an integrated criminal law reform model that combines Soerjono Soekanto's Theory of Law Enforcement and Lawrence M. Friedman's Legal System Theory, supported by judicial and comparative legal analyses. The proposed model provides theoretical development and practical guidance for strengthening Indonesia's criminal law policy against online gambling promotion