Penulis: Soni Soimun Rhomdloni, M.H / Dosen Tetap Prodi HES STAI Riyadhul Jannah Subang
tintagenz.com- Some time ago, social media was abuzz with the story of a high school student whose Paylater bill had ballooned to millions of rupiah. In another case, quite a few teenagers had their e-commerce accounts frozen, or they got trapped in scam investments disguised as online games. This phenomenon is no longer merely a problem of “reckless young people”; rather, it is a loud alarm: our young generation is swimming in the ocean of the modern economic legal ecosystem without being equipped with adequate life jackets.
Today’s economy is no longer as simple as cash transactions in a school canteen or traditional market. In the digital era, every tap of a student’s finger on a device screen when agreeing to an application’s Terms and Conditions, downloading a digital wallet, or purchasing digital assets, automatically binds them into a legally valid contract.
The question then arises: To what extent are our educational institutions—schools—ready to prepare students to face this increasingly complex legal-economic reality?
Curriculum Gap and the Reality of the Times
If we gauge the current school curriculum, it must be acknowledged that there is a fairly wide gap between what is taught in the classroom and the reality on the ground. Economics lessons at the secondary school level generally still revolve around conventional macro-micro theories, manual accounting journals, or abstract laws of supply and demand.
Meanwhile, the practical economic law aspects—such as digital consumer protection rights, the legality of electronic contracts, the legal consequences of defaulting on online loans (fintech loans), and intellectual property rights (IPR) in digital content—are almost never touched upon.
Schools have only gone as far as teaching students how to make money (through entrepreneurship classes) or how to save money (basic financial literacy). However, schools often forget to teach how to legally protect oneself in modern economic transactions. As a result, many students are digitally literate, but legally they are “illiterate.”
Refusing to Forget Civil and Criminal Consequences
The unpreparedness of schools in integrating practical economic law creates massive vulnerabilities. Under the umbrella of the Information and Electronic Transactions Law (ITE Law) and the Personal Data Protection Law (PDP Law), every digital economic activity has real legal consequences.
When a student illegally uses their parents’ identity to open a digital credit account, or when they are tempted to become resellers of illegal cosmetics for quick profit, they are not only committing a financial wrongdoing but also a legal violation. Without understanding legal aspects such as breach of contract, cyber fraud, and business legality, these school children become easy targets for digital economic predators or even end up becoming perpetrators of crimes without realizing it.
Bringing Economic Law to Life in the Classroom
Preparing students to face this ecosystem does not mean we have to burden them with the thick articles of the Civil Code (KUHPer) that are boring. There needs to be a radical reorientation in teaching methods at school.
- First, Contextual Integration. Through the flexible Merdeka Curriculum, schools can incorporate economic law case studies into existing subjects. For example, discussions on inflation can be linked to the systemic risks of fraudulent investments. Sociology classes can dissect the socio-legal impacts of online gambling and online loans among teenagers.
- Second, Contract and Consumer Rights Simulation. Students need to be taught how to read and understand the implications of digital legality documents. They should know their rights as consumers if goods purchased online are not as described, and the legal mechanisms to resolve such issues.
- Third, Cross-Sector Collaboration. Schools cannot operate independently. Teachers need to have their capacities strengthened through cooperation with institutions such as the Financial Services Authority (OJK), National Consumer Protection Agency (BPKN), or legal practitioners to provide up-to-date and practical education.
The modern economic ecosystem, which is entirely digital, will not slow down to wait for the readiness of our education system. Every day, thousands of school children enter this economic market as consumers, content producers, and even micro-business players.
If schools remain passive and consider economic laws as the domain of adults or law students only, we are letting the future generation grow into fragile economic citizens. Assessing the readiness of schools today is a reflective effort to immediately make improvements. Schools must become the first fortress that provides legal protection for students, so that they not only become a productive and creative generation but also a generation that is intelligent, safe, and empowered in the eyes of the law.