THE SCOPE AND MAGNITUDE OF ONLINE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN IN INDONESIA

FINAL REPORT
THE SCOPE AND MAGNITUDE OF
ONLINE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN
IN INDONESIA
RESEARCH TEAM
TEAM LEADER : Ahmad Sofian
MEMBERS :
Anantya Ayu D
Ani Sagita
Lola Zelfa
Rani Hastari
2014
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CONTENTS
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
PART ONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Introduction
A. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
B. Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Data Collection Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1. Research Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2. Literature Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3. Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4. Focus Group Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
5. Research Scope and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
PART TWO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Situation of Online Sexual Abuse of Children in Indonesia
A. Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
B. Factor Causing Online Sexual abuse of Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
C. Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
D. Syndicates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
PART THREE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Efforts to Eliminate Online Sexual Exploitation of Children
A. Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
B. Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
C. Rehabilitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
D. Cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
PART FOUR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Recommendations
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Research on the Scope and Magnitude of Online Sexual Abuse of Children in Indonesia was
conducted in three cities, namely: Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya. Data in this research was
collected by using some methods such as document study, in-depth interview, quesionaire
and focus group discussion (FGD).
In Jakarta, we interviewed 17 informants with different backgrounds such bloggers, Ministry
of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection (Kementerian Pemberdayaan Perempuan
dan Perlindungan Anak), Ministry of Communication and Information (Kementerian
Komunikasi dan Informasi), Yayasan Nawala, ID Kita Kompasiana, The Jakarta Post,
Merdekadotcom, criminologist from Universitas Indonesia (UI), Yayasan Bandungwangi,
Commission for the Protection of Indonesian Children (Komisi Perlindungan Anak Indonesia –
KPAI), Integrated Service Center for Women’s Empowerment and Children (Pusat Pelayanan
Terpadu Pemberdayaan Perempuan dan Anak – P2TP2A), ICT Watch, Microsoft and Cyber
Crime Unit of the Headquarter of Indonesian Police.
In Surabaya, we interviewed five informants who were victims of online sexual abuse of
children. The in-depth interview was conducted at Yayasan Embun Surabaya Office which is
also used as a shelter for child victims of sexual abuse. We also interviewed informants from
Yayasan Embun Surabaya and Surabaya Children Crisis Center (SCCC). One FGD was also
conducted by involving SCCC’s and Yayasan Genta’s staffs, boards and lawyer.
Meanwhile, in Bandung, we interviewed five children who were victims of online sexual
abuse and a 19-year-old pimp. The in-depth interview also involved two key informants from
Cyber Crime Unit of West Java Regional Police and Yayasan Masyarakat Sehat (YMS).
THE FOLLOWING IS A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF IMPORTANT RESEARCH FINDINGS:
Jakarta ranked first in terms of access to harmful websites, including pornographic websites.
Although valid data on the magnitude of online sexual abuse of children was unavailable,
various sources and references showed that it was crucial to prevent and address the issue.
Furthermore, there were a lot of people in Indonesia who had smartphone that could be
used to access internet and 94% of time of the use of smart phone was spent for using social
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media.1
There were various forms of online sexual abuse of children in Jakarta such as online
child prostitution and pornography and most of them were facilitated by social media.2
Most
of the victims were teenagers because they could be influenced easily. There were some
factors that made children particularly vulnerable to online sexual abuse such as the lack of
parents’ knowledge and supervision of the use of online technology, the lack of time for
parents to educate their children about the use of technology wisely, the lack of sex
education, disharmonious family and social environment, peer pressure, etc.
In Surabaya alone, the number of cases of online sexual abuse of children3
sharply increased
from 2010 to 2013. Data from Commission for the Protection of Indonesian Children showed
that there were 25 reported cases of online sexual abuse of children in Surabaya in 2010. Up
to now, neither police nor NGOs has released official data on the number of cases of online
sexual abuse of children in 2013. However, SCCC and Yayasan Embun Surabaya handled
about six cases of online sexual abuse of children in Surabaya from January to June 2013.
Although the number of the cases was low, one case could victimize many children. The
impact of sexual abuse of children through online media was more massive than that of
offline media.4
1
Data released by a research institute, MarkPlus Indonesia, showed that there were 61 million internet
users in Indonesia. 58 million of the total number accessed internet by using a mobile phone. When
they were surfing on the Internet, 94% used social media; 60/2% opened an email; 64.5% searched for
other information; 56.9% searched for news; 39.1% downloaded/uploaded a video; and 26.2%
chatted online. See MarkPlus Indonesia, Pertumbuhan Jumlah Pengguna Internet Indonesia 2010-2012,
MarkPlus Insight Netizen Survey 2010-2012
2
See Anak-Anak Pengguna Media Sosial Rentan Alami Kekerasan Seksual, accessed from:
http://www.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/umum/13/11/07/mvvoi7-anakanak-pengguna-media-sosial-
rentan-alami-kekerasan-seksual. See also Kejahatan Seksual Online pada Anak Makin Mengerikan,
accessed from: http://news.detik.com/read/2013/12/12/151752/2440237/10/kejahatan-seksual-
online-pada-anak-makin-mengerikan
3
Online sexual abuse of children is a crime against decency that uses information technology as media
to communicate, show or distribute any sexual material to a child. The definition is interpreted from the
Draft of the Indonesian Criminal Code and Barda Nawawi Arief, Tindak Pidana Mayantara, (Jakarta: PT.
Rajagrafindo Persada, 2006), p. 186
4
This statement was made based on our interview with Yayuk, an NGO activist from Yayasan Embun
Surabaya. She said that online sexual abuse had a massive impact because it could target more
children. Since most children could easily access internet and other social media, child predators could
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TABLE 1
CASE STUDY IN BANDUNG
Five child informants whom we interviewed were victims of online sexual abuse: four children
were involved in child prostitution and one child was involved in child trafficking. For child
prostitution, they used Blackberry Messenger (BBM) to offer the victims to the customers.
Meanwhile, for child trafficking, most of the traffickers used Facebook to lure and trap their
victims. The perpetrators usually targeted children who had problem at home and needed
someone to talk to via online media. One of the victims said that she knew the trafficker on
Facebook. Then, the trafficker offered her a job but then sold her to Palembang.
Currently, police could only uncover small prostitution syndicates while the big syndicates
which involved adult pimps still could not be uncovered. Currently, children were involved in
online prostitution syndicates. This became a new trend and modus operandi in some big
cities in Indonesia such as Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya. They “voluntarily” prostituted
themselves and even recruited their peers and involved them in prostitution business via
online media. Online media that they used to contact their customers were Blackberry
Messenger and Facebook. They usually had special secret codes for their status and Facebook
account to attract potential customers. Other modus they used was by sending a message or
a photo via Blackberry Messenger to customers. This research also found that generally online
sexual abuse of children started when the children knew the abusers from social network
find their potential victims easier. Unlike offline sexual abuse, the abusers needed longer time and more
complex access to the victims. Therefore, in some cases, online sexual abuse in Surabaya takes more
than one victims.
In 2013, public in Bandung was shocked by the exposure of an online prostitution
business run by an alumnus of a private university in the city. Through a website,
www.cewekbisyar.com, the perpetrator could easily market her “products” to customers
in Bandung. However, not long after that, another shocking online child prostitution case
was revealed. In this case, a university student from Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) sold
children at: www.bogorcantik.blogspot.com. The perpetrator was very interested in the
business because it was very easy and lucrative. The two revealed cases showed that the
information and technology system had been used by pimps to effectively market
prostituted children to their customers.
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such as Facebook. This statement was supported by the results of our interviews with the
informants and relevant parties which had been summarized in the following table.
TABLE 2
ONLINE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN
ORIGINS INFORMANTS MEDIA
Jakarta Tri
Selvi
Fiyanti
Dian
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
Surabaya Arofah
Wahida
Miftah
Fitri
Rini
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook
Facebook & Blackberry Messenger
Facebook
Bandung Aci
Sasa
UI
Cimoy
Reni
Facebook & Blackberry Messenger
Blackberry Messenger
Facebook
Blackberry Messenger
Facebook
This research found a fact that one of factors of the involvement of children in online sexual
abuse was broken family. Children from broken families were much more vulnerable to online
sexual abuse than those of from non-broken families. If children could find happiness and
comfort at home, they would look for it outside such as from their friends who they knew on
the internet. Online and offline sexual exploitation of children usually started during this
phase. In Bandung alone, when children had been trapped in gangs or communities were
familiar with prostitution business, they would automatically be trapped in such business.
Here, they had glamorous lifestyle and could earn money easily.
In addition to family factor, some informants and respondents said that lifestyle such as
consumerism also significantly contributed to the involvement of children in online sexual
abuse. Most of children who were voluntarily involved in online prostitution were influenced
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by their lifestyle of their peer group. Other factor included external factor such as increasing
demand for sex with child. Adult customers preferred to have sex with children because they
were less likely to have HIV/AIDS infection and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
than adult sex workers.
In short, efforts to properly address the issue should include prevention, protection,
rehabilitation and cooperation. Based on the results of the research, measures that had to be
taken for prevention included parenting education and development of parenting control
software for gadget or smartphone. Additionally, a special intervention program would be
needed by students because they were easy targets of prostitution syndicates. For protection,
almost all informants agreed to give shock therapy5
for online sexual abusers. The shock
therapy had to be given to not only the syndicates but also customers or sex buyers and
providers or third parties facilitating the abuse. Blocking pornographic websites was less
effective than developing software that could be used to block pornographic websites.
Cooperation between Child and Woman Protection Unit and Cyber Crime Unit of the
Headquarters of Indonesian Police needed to be improved so that they could coordinate
effectively. It was also important to improve their skill. Rehabilitation service was also needed
by both victims and abusers. This was because basically, any child who was voluntarily or
forcibly involved in online sexual exploitation of children was a victim. Victim rehabilitation
was needed, starting from need assessment, legal process (if the case was reported to police)
to family or community reintegration. It was particularly important to strengthen task forces at
national and provincial levels to enable them to effectively address “child predator” because
currently we were lack of experts in these fields. As a consequence, the number of cases of
online sexual abuse of children had sharply increased.
Nevertheless, field facts showed that child sexual abuse cases handled by non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) indicated the existence of online sexual abuse of children. 9 of 10
informants we interviewed said that they had been sold to their customers via online media
such as Blackberry Messenger (BBM).
5
According to Hoefnagels, we could take an effort to tackle crimes by imposing maximum punishment
against a criminal as this would indirectly prevent public from doing a crime although they were not
punished or given a deterrant effect (prevention without punishment). Arief Gosita, Masalah
Perlindungan Anak, (Jakarta: Akademika Pressindo, 1991), p. 2
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PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
A. BACKGROUND
Rapid increase in the number of Internet and mobile phoneusers in Indonesiahas created a
potential market for online sexual abuse of children. Indonesia has been listed as one of top
10 countries with the highest cases of online sexual abuse of children since 2005.
Indonesia was at level 7 in 2005, level 5 in 2007 and level 3 in 20096
. The level tends to go
up along with the growth of Internet users which reached 55.2 million people. Compared to
the number of internet users in 1998 which were only about 500 thousand people, the figure
had increased up to ten times or equal to 1,000 percent. About 40 percent of the total
internet users which is 55.2 million people are between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Adrianus
Meliala, a criminologist from University of Indonesia, said that in 2008, about 4,000 children
in Indonesia were exposed to pornographic materials on the Internet and the number
significantly increased up to 16,000 children in 2011.
Facebook is one of today’s most popular social media. Currently, Indonesia ranks the third
highest in the world for Facebook users after USA and China. “There are 55 millions facebook
active users in Indonesia and 50 percent of them log-in every day,” Jeff Wu, the Head of
Government and Law Enforcement Relation of Facebook for Asia-Pacific, said. Like facebook
users in other ten countries, facebook users in Indonesia also often upload photos related to
child sexual exploitation. According to data from NCMEC for Child Exploitation, there were
18,747 photos which were uploaded by facebook users in Indonesia from 1 June to 15
September 2012 and 90.2 percent of them use Indonesian.7
It is difficult to find the most valid definition that can be used to define online sexual abuse of
children. However, some sources show that the term ‘child pornography’ may be used to
6
KOMPAS daily, 16/03/2012
7
Odi Shalahuddin, Indonesia Pelanggar Tertinggi Kejahatan Seksual Online terhadap Anak di Facebook,
accessed from: http://sosbud.kompasiana.com/2012/10/31/indonesia-pelanggar-tertinggi-kejahatan-
seksual-online-terhadap-anak-di-facebook-504805.html on 13 May 2013 at 10:01.
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substitute the term ‘online sexual abuse’. Catherine Beaulieu8
, for example, states that child
pornography exploits children in many ways:
1. Children may be tricked or coerced into engaging in sexual acts for the production of
pornography or images may be made in the process of sexually exploitating a child
without the child’s knowledge. These images are then sold, traded or otherwise
distributed.
2. Secondly,the demands for images of children maintains the incentive to produce such
materials. Thus, those who “consume” and/or possess pornographic depictions of
children continue to exploit these children.
3. Thirdly, pornographic materials are frequently used by child abusers to dimish a child’s
inhibitions and to convey the impression that sex between adults and children is normal,
acceptable and enjoyable. This is part of the “grooming” process.
4. Fourthly, the makers of pornography commonly use their “products” to coerce,
intimidate or blackmail the children used in the making of such material.9
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK AND DEFINITION
1. Online sexual abuse of children is a crime against decency that uses information
technology as media to communicate, show or distribute any pornographic material to a
child. We choose this broad definition because online sexual abuse will lead to various
abuses which are difficult to be specifically described. The research team substantially
interpret that the difference between online sexual abuse of children and general sexual
abuse of children lies in the information technology and media used.
2. Online child pornography is producing, providing, distributing, purchasing and possessing
all substances in media or a communication tool created to express ideas to exploit
sexuality, decency, and/or erotism related to a child or whose object is a child which,
among other things, takes the form of a writing, voice, or voice recording, film or
8
Catherine Beaulieu is ECPAT International’s former legal officer and currently works as a lawyer in
Canada.
9
Cahterine Beaulieu, “Strengthening Laws Addressing Child Sexual Exploitation”, Bangkok : ECPAT
International, 2008, p. 70
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anything deemed similar to film, song lyric, poem, picture, photo, or painting through
information technology media.10
3. Anyone who broadcasts, causes someone else listen, displays, or attaches a writing,
voice, voice recording, film or anything deemed similar to film, song lyric, poem, picture,
photo, and/or painting through mass printed, electronic and/or communication media
that exploits sexual attraction of body part, sexual activity, sexual intercourse with
opposite sex or same sex, or sexual activity or intercourse with an animal or body.11
B. METHODOLOGY
DATA COLLECTION METHOD
1. RESEARCH LOCATION
This research was conducted in three big cities in Indonesia, namely: Jakarta, Bandung and
Surabaya. A research conducted by MarkPlus Insight in six big cities in Indonesia at the
beginning of 2010 found that six of ten young people in Indonesia accessed Internet more
than other media, including conventional media such as TV, in these last six months and
nine of the ten young people had a Facebook account.12
Penetration of internet users through PC/laptop and handphone in big cities in Indonesia is
quite high and this occurs in all cities we surveyed. Compared to other cities, however,
Jakarta is a little bit higher. The penetration is led by the high number of smart phone,
notebook and netbook sellers these last few years. Increase in the number of internet users
10
See Section 1 of Article 469 and Article 472 of the Draft of the Criminal Code which regulate child
pornography on computer
11
See Articles 206, 379 and 469 (2) of the Draft of the Criminal Code
12
MarkPlus Insight conducted research on Internet users in Indonesia by using a comprehensive
method, starting from secondary research to primary research. The primary research applied two
approaches: qualitative approach through four focus group discussions (FGD) involving senior high
school students, university students, new workers, social media users and e-commerce users and
quantitative approach through a survey on 1,500 respondents (margin of error 2.58% and confidence
interval 95%) who are spread in eight big cities in Indonesia such as Medan, Palembang, Jabodetabek,
Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Denpasar and Makassar.
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is in line with increase in the number of cases of online sexual abuse of children, especially
in big cities such as Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya. The number of reported online sexual
abuse of children continues to grow. This could be seen from some popular cases such as
the cases of child pimp who runs her prostitution business via Facebook and online
prostitution website from Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya.
2. LITERATURE STUDY
The literature study involved a number of documents, especially those related to
information about online sexual abuse. It was difficult to describe the issue due to the lack
of data and information about online sexual abuse in Indonesia.
In addition to studies conducted by a number of organizations in Indonesia, the data was
collected from various sources on the Internet.
Since the number of research on online sexual abuse of children in Indonesia was very
limited, these research findings were the only academic source available which could be
used as a reference for the issue.
3. INTERVIEW
The research was conducted in three cities, namely: Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya. During this
research, we interviewed some respondents with different backgrounds such as the Cyber Crime
Unit of the Headquarter of Indonesian Police, West Java Regional Police, Microsoft, NGOs
having experiences in handling cases of online sexual abuse of children, Commission for the
Protection of Indonesian Children (Komisi Perlindungan Anak Indonesia – KPAI), Ministry of
Information and Communication, Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child
Protection, Internet Service Provider, bloggers, media / journalists having experience in covering
cases of online sexual abuse of children as well as 15 children who are victims of online sexual
abuse of children in Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya. We also faced some obstacles in
conducting the research. We had very limited time with a lot of informants. In addition, we found
difficult to adjust our schedule to that of the informants due to their hectic schedule. Besides that,
since online sexual abuse of children was a new issue, we faced difficulties to obtain documents
from official sources for our document study. Up to now, neither the Headquarters of Indonesian
Police, Commission for the Protection of Indonesian Children, Ministry of Women’s
Empowerment and Child Protection nor the Regional Police has accurate data on the issue.
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4. FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION (FGD)
The focus group discussion was attended by 17 participants from the Cyber Crime Unit of
the Headquarter of Indonesian Police, Ministry of Information and Communication,
Commission for the Protection of Indonesian Children, child NGO activists, bloggers and
journalists having experience in covering cases of online sexual abuse of children.
5. RESEARCH SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
This research was trying to describe the situation, distribution and syndicate of online
sexual abuse of children in Indonesia. The description would be used as a basis to make
some recommendations for the elimination of online sexual abuse of children in Indonesia.
The research presented a description of characteristics of children vulnerable to online
sexual abuse, causes of the involvement of children in online sexual abuse and Indonesian
legal framework on online sexual abuse of children. According to the research
methodology, this research would not aim to detail the number of children involved in
online sexual abuse because this would take a longer time and need a broader research
scope. In other words, samples of the research would not be taken from the three big
cities only. Research on the number of victims of online sexual abuse of children needs a
quantitative method which was not used in this research.
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PART TWO
SITUATION OF ONLINE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN IN
INDONESIA
A. SITUATION
Rapid internet development in Indonesia can be seen from the inclusion of Indonesia as one
of countries with the highest internet users in the world. A survey on countries with the
highest internet users in the world by internetworldstat.com found that in 2012, Indonesia
was one of top 10 countries with the highest number of internet users in the world.13
Easy
access to internet services in Indonesia, of course, enables all parts of society that have
different levels of education to access internet easily. This has caused new problems in the
country.14
One of them which recently has received public attention is online sexual abuse of
children. The new issue has received great attention from various parties, including
government institutions and non-governmental organizations.
Online sexual abuse is part of general sexual abuse which is facilitated by online media. The
online media can be fully or partly used. It means that, for example, social media on the
internet is fully used to expose photos of naked children for sexual purposes. Online media
also can be partly used as triggering factor of online sexual abuse. For example, chatting or
other online activities can be intentionally used to market sex with minors. This research was
focused on children under the age of 18.
The National Commission for Child Protection ( Komisi Nasional Perlindungan Anak –
Komnas PA) has declared 2013 as a year of national emergency over child sexual abuse. Data
from Data and Information Center of the National Commission for Child Protection showed
13
Accessed on 13 August 2013 at 9:36 a.m from: http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm
14
One of the problems was that cyber crime had developed into various problems such as cyber
gambling, cyber fraud, cyber narcotism, cyber smuggling, cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, cyber
blackmail, cyber threatening, cyber terrorism and cyber pornography/sex. Agus Raharjo, Cybercrime
Pemahaman dan Upaya Pencegahan Kejahatan Berteknologi, (Bandung: PT. Citra Aditya Bakti, 2002), p.
132
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that there were 70 pornography-related cases from January to June 2013.15
Although there
was no categorization whether pornography in this case used online media or not, in many
cases, pornography became one of factors which triggered the occurrence of online sexual
abuse of children. This was closely related to easy access to internet services which make
children more likely be exposed to pornographic materials although with no intention. Online
pornographic materials in relation to sexual abuse have received attention from international
community.
“You will be shocked to know that research shows that everyday about 2.5 billion
emails containing pornography (most of them are spam) circulate on websites, and
children are often unintentionally exposed to pornography on the internet through pop-
up window, mistyped URL, searching machine result, links shared by their friends and
links in emails they receive.”16
The data showed that all children who were doing online activities were vulnerable to sexual
abuse. They did not directly open pornographic websites but received “sent” materials which
should not they receive. Indonesian legal framework states that causing pornography
accessible to a child is a crime and a child who accesses pornography is a victim. Law
Number 44 Year 2008 on Pornography states that anyone is obliged to protect children from
the impacts of pornography and prevent children from accessing pornographic information. 17
Regarding to online sexual abuse which could occur through pornographic websites, Jakarta
became one of cities with the highest number of cases of online sexual abuse. Nawala, a non-
profit organization working for blocking harmful websites, had found online activities related
to pornography in the capital of Indonesia. Although Yogyakarta ranked first in terms of
access to pornographic websites, Jakarta remained ranking first in terms of access to harmful
15
Zamzam, Ilmi. 90 Hingga 100 Anak Indonesia Menerima Kekerasan Seksual. Accessed on 19 July
2013 from: http://malang-online.com/2013/07/19/90-hingga-100-anak-indonesia-menerima-kekerasan-
seksual/.
16
Harmful websites include porn websites, gambling websites, phising and malware. Noel. Software
Pemblokir Situs Porno untuk Mencegah Anak Anda Mengakses Pornografi Online. Accessed from:
http://teknosiana.blogspot.com/2011/02/software-pemblokir-situs-porno-untuk.html?m=1 on 21
February 2011.
17
See Articles 4 (1) and (2) and 16 of Law Number 44 on Pornography
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websites in which pornography was part of them.18
Of top 50 cities in Indonesia with highest
number of harmful website visitors, Jakarta ranked first and of top 50 countries in the world
with the highest number of harmful website visitors, Indonesia ranked first.19
Meanwhile,
based on data from Nawala, there were 647,622 pornographic websites which had been
blocked by the organization until 4 July 2013.20
Meanwhile, valid data on the total number of victims of online sexual abuse in Jakarta remains
unavailable. The available data was usually collected based on reported cases and media
coverage. This was because most of sexual abuse cases occurred in private domains. One of
these private domains was chatting room. Based on the result of Indonesian consumer
behavior survey by Nielsen, 94% of an average of 189 minutes per day of smartphone use
was used for chatting.21
Through this chatting tool, children could be easily victims of sexting,
a sexual interaction through text, picture or video privately.
Children were also vulnerable to online sexual abuse when they were using social media,
including Facebook, because they were emotionally unstable and they, therefore, could be
easily influenced by others.22
One of the cases revealed that a 16-year-old girl in Cijantung,
East Jakarta, was brutally raped by some men after getting acquainted with the rapist through
social network. Data from the National Commission for Child Protection showed that there
were 31 similar cases from January to February 2013.23
The number comprises nearly half of a
18
REP. “Nawala: Yogyakarta Tertinggi dalam Mengakses Situs Pornografi, Jakarta untuk Situs Perjudian.
Accessed on 26 May 2013 from: http://teknologi.kompasiana.com/internet/2013/05/26/nawala-
yogyakarta-tertinggi-dalam-mengkases-situs-pornografi-jakarta-untuk-situs-perjudian-559484.html.
19
DNS Nawala at a glance. Rilis Nawala. http://nawala.org.
20
Ibid
21
Noor, Ahmad Rouzni. Indonesia Keranjingan Chatting. Accessed on Monday, 12/08/2013 7:30 a.m.
from: http://inet.detik.com/read/2013/08/12/073032/2327064/398/indonesia-keranjingan-chatting.
22
Hurlock states that youth’s emotion is under a storm and stress period, a period where emotional
stress increases as a result of physical and gland changes. Youths have high emotion because they are
under a social pressure and face a new condition and hope. This condition makes them unable to solve
their problems. That is why youthhood is often called problematic age. Elizabeth B. Hurlock, Child
growth and development., (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1999), p. 18
23
They did not specifically mention the names of cities where the cases occurred. Syailendra, Aditya
Budiman, et.al Awas, dari Faceebook ke Pelecehan Seksual. Accessed on Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Page 19 of 58

total of 83 reported sexual abuse cases. Furthermore, according to data from the National
Commission for the Protection of Indonesian Children, the number of sexual abuse cases
increased compared that of from January to June 2012.24
Youths in the three cities where this research was conducted were also vulnerable to online
sexual abuse, especially senior high school students who actively did online activity in their
everyday life. Situation in a seminar on the distribution of porn videos among senior high
school students indicated that these young children were familiar with sexual activities
recorded by using a mobile phone and this “lived” among them. There were many senior high
school students who had recorded their sexual activities. In many cases, they were forced to
record their sexual activities and then the videos were distributed.
“The most interesting thing was the reaction of these senior high school students when
the speakers presented a “terrifying” fact of pornographic activities. Instead of feeling
sad, they clapped their hands and welcome the fact happily as if it was humor. It was an
irony because their reaction, in fact, was far different from what the speaker had
expected.”25
What happened in the seminar also could represent the real lives of senior high school
students. They were unaware that they were particularly vulnerable to online sexual abuse.
Even, they did not think it as a serious “problem”. Abuse they often experienced in their love
relationship or dating was a part of pornographic video involving senior high school students
and had become a contemporary issue. Additionally, abusers intentionally targeted many
students as objects of pornographic videos for sexual exploitation purposes.26
at 5:46 p.m. from: http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2013/03/20/064468144/Awas-dari-Facebook-ke-
Pelecehan-Seksual.
24
Ibid
25
Hayunta, Aquino. Pendidikan Kritis Anak Muda: Change untuk Perubahan! Jurnal Perempuan, No 61.
Jakarta, December 2008.
26
Indonesia alone was said to be the second most vulnerable country to the penetration of
pornography into children after Russia. Many children become sexual objects when their body were
sold online in the form of a picture or video. A speaker from ICT Watch, Donny B.U, said that by typing
keywords “SMP” or “SMA” in Google search engine, people would find websites related to Indonesian
children’s pornographic activities or photos. Kasus Pornografi Anak di Internet Belum Menjadi Prioritas
Page 20 of 58

During our interview with Edward Dewaruci , the Director of Surabaya Children Crisis Center
(SCCC), and Muhammad Umar, paralegal of SCCC, they said that until July 2013, SCCC had
handled 6 cases of trafficking through online media.27
The number of cases of online sexual
abuse of children such as online prostitution, online child pornography, child kidnapping,
child sexual abuse, etc. continues to grow every year. Currently, social media such as
Facebook and Twitter was often used as a new media for human trafficking.
Today, online media becomes an entry point to flourish trafficking.28
Blackberry Messenger29
and various messaging features also can be used as an instrument by abusers to sexually
abuse children online.
During our interview with our informant from SCCC, he said that prior to the use of
Facebook, children had voluntarily marketed themselves to adults although it was not so
explicit and massive as today. In the past, it was only pimps from Dolly30
who were brave to
market children. Currently, however, children can run prostitution business by themselves and
Polri. Accessed from: http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2009/06/03/063179840/Kasus-Pornografi-
Anak-di-Internet-Belum-Menjadi-Prioritas-Polri on 9 December 2013.
27
An interview with Edward Dewaruci and Muhammad Umar of Surabaya Children Cricis Center on
30 July 2013.
28
Situs Jejaring Sosial Perluas Trafficking. Accessed from:
http://www.aidsindonesia.or.id/news/4538/3/12/04/2012/Situs-Jejaring-Sosial-Perluas-
Trafficking#sthash.fq3hcNR3.dpuf
29
Blackberry users need to be a member of Blacberry Internet Service (BIS) offered by celular phone
operators in Indonesia to enable them to use Blackberry Messenger application. Blackberry owners
cannot operate BBM feature if they are not connected to Internet and a member of BIS. Therefore, the
use of BBM also is considered as the use of information technology. By using this application, someone
can share information such as texts, pictures and videos to others. If a group member sends a content
to his or her group, other group members also will receive it. In other words, social media application
technology, including BBM, can create a virtual public room. This, of course, can cause legal
consequences. Apakah Blackberry Messenger (BBM) Termasuk Media Sosial, accessed from:
http://www.hukumonline.com/klinik/detail/lt50efc03181149/apakah-blackberry-messenger-(bbm)-
termasuk-media-sosial on 9 December 2013.
30
Dolly or Gang Dolly is a red light district located in Jarak, Pasar Kembang, Surabaya. It is the biggest
red light district in Southeast Asia and is bigger than Patpong in Bangkok, Thailand, and Geylang in
Singapore. Dolly is located in the downtown, densely populated area of Surabaya. History of Dolly can
be read in a book written by Tjahyo Purnomo and Ashadi Siregar, Dolly: Membedah Dunia Pelacuran
Surabaya, (Jakarta: Grafitipers, 1983), p. 11
Page 21 of 58

do not need adults as an intermediary. Since smartphone such as Blackberry is cheaper now,
children can use Blacberry Messenger facility for prostitution.31
Online sex workers usually use Internet to help them get customers. By doing this, they also
feel safer because it protects them from police raids as they do not need to operate on streets
or in red light district. Child sex workers are also safer because police cannot easily
differentiate between child sex workers and adult sex workers. The availability of free and
non-free websites also will help sex workers promote themselves. Due to the internet support,
they can be very exclusive because their customers can easily contact them via websites.
This case has violated not only Articles 30 and 35 of Law Number 44 Year 2008 on
Pornography but also Law Number 11 Year 2008 on Electronic Information and Transaction
and Criminal Code. Legal grounds for this issue include Articles 296 and 506 of the Criminal
Code, Article 27 (1) of Law Number 11 Year 2008 on Electronic Information and Transaction
and Article 30 juncto Article 4 (1) of Law Number 44 Year 2008 on Pornography.
TABLE 4
CASE STUDY IN BANDUNG
31
An interview with Edward Dewaruci and Muhammad Umar of Surabaya Children Cricis Center on 30
July 2013.
Online prostitution case in Bandung was revealed for the first time by Criminal
Investigation Unit of City Resort Police of Bandung last February. An alumnus of a private
university in Bandung sold her victims at www.cewekbisyar.com and was arrested and
prosecuted.1
Her victims were young women from Bandung and their rates ranged from
IDR 500,000 to millions. The perpetrator said that she was interested in the online
prostitution business because it was lucrative.1
Someone just needed to become a
member of the website to enable him or her to book the sex workers. Then, deals would
be reached personally through the website administrator. In the arrest, police seized a
number of evidences such as a laptop, two headphones and a bank book whose account
holder is the suspect, W. The suspect, W, was be charged under Articles 30 and 35 of Law
on Pornography and could be sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.1
Page 22 of 58

TABLE 5
A COMPARISON OF REGULATION RELATED TO ONLINE PROSTITUTION IN THE
CRIMINAL CODE, LAW NUMBER 11 YEAR 2008 ON ELECTRONIC INFORMATION AND
TRANSACTIONS AND LAW NUMBER 44 YEAR 2008 ON PORNOGRAPHY
DESCRIPTION CRIMINAL CODE
LAW NUMBER 11 YEAR
2008 ON ELECTRONIC
INFORMATION AND
TRANSACTIONS
LAW NUMBER 44 YEAR 2008
ON PORNOGRAPHY
ARTICLE Articles 269 and
506 is Act:
1.An act which
facilitates and
eases other
people’s indecent
act for his/her
own gain.
2.As a habit and
livelihood.
3.The perpetrator’s
act must be done
more than once.
Article 27 (1) regulates
prohibited acts:
Any Person who
knowingly and without
authority distributes
and/or transmits and/or
causes to be accessible
Electronic Information
and/or Electronic
Documents with
contents against
propriety.
Article 30 Juncto Article 4 of
Law Number 44 Year 2008 on
Pornography more specifically
regulates criminal acts of
running online prostitution.
The law categorizes
prostitution into some sexual
services such as explicitly
presenting genitals, exploiting
or exposing sexual activities;
or offering or advertising,
directly or indirectly, sexual
services as an objective
element of the criminal act.
SANCTION 1. Imprisonment of
one year and four
months and a fine
of Rp. 15,000
(Article 296)
2. Imprisonment of
one year (Article
506)
Any Person who satisfies
the elements as intended
by Article 27 shall be
sentenced to imprisonment
not exceeding 6 (six) years
and/or a fine not
exceeding
Rp.1,000,000,000 (one
billion rupiah).
A minimum term of
imprisonment of six months and
a maximum term of
imprisonment of six years and a
minimum fine of Rp
250,000,000 and a maximum
fine of Rp 3,000,000,000.
Sources: Criminal Code, Law Number 11 Year 2008 on Electronic Information and Transaction and
Law Number 44 Year 2008 on Pornography
Law enforcers need to comprehensively understand the criminal acts of online prostitution
because they actually can use more than one article from different laws for prosecuting the
Page 23 of 58

perpetrator. If a child sex worker is involved in online prostitution, they also can use Law
Number 23 Year 2002 on Child Protection to prosecute the perpetrator. Article 88 of Law on
Child Protection states that “Every person who economically or sexually exploits a child for
his/her own gain or the gain of some third party shall be subject to a term of imprisonment of
not more than ten (10) years and/or a maximum fine of one hundred million rupiah (IDR
100,000,000)”.
The law is also applicable to an online prostitution case in Bogor which involved a child sex
worker. However, not long after that, West Java Regional Police uncovered another online
prostitution case in Bogor. The perpetrator was a student of Institut Pertanian Bogor. The
system she used was similar to that of in Bandung. The suspect used website to sell the
victims at www.bogorcantik.blogspot.com. However, someone did not need to be its
member to enable him or her book the sex worker. Sadly, the victims were children between
the ages of 15 and 18. There were a total of 9 victims. The suspect used chatting facility,
MiRC, to communicate with her customers and through the chatting room she sent her blog
address to enable potential customers to choose children whose photos were put in the blog.
The suspect sold them IDR 1,500,000 from which she received IDR 200,000 per sexual
transaction.32
The suspect was prosecuted and charged under Section 1 of Article 27 juncto
Section 1 of Article 45 of Law Number 11 Year 2008 on Electronic Information and
Transaction, Article 88 of Law Number 23 Year 2002 on Child Protection and Article 506 of
Criminal Code regarding pimp who gets gain from prostuting others. The suspect was
sentenced to two years imprisonment by judges in Bandung District Court.33
The exposure of
this case showed that online child prostitution did exist in West Java, especially in Bandung.
Since online prostitution case in Bandung was still new, the number of cases reported to and
handled by police was still low. City Resort Police of Bandung still could not reveal case of
online sexual abuse of children in the city because website www.cewekbisyar.comsold adult
women while website www.bogorcantik.blogspot.comsold children in Bogor, not in Bandung.
32
Mahasiwa Kelola 9 ABG Lewat Prostitusi Online. Accessed on Monday, 11 February 2013 from:
http://m.pikiran-rakyat.com/node/222616
33
Mahasiswa Pengelola Prostitusi Online Divonis 2 Tahun Penjara. Accessed on Tuesday, 20 August
2013 from: http://news.detik.com/bandung/read/2013/08/20/182555/2335543/486/mahasiswa-
pengelola-prostitusi-online-divonis-2-tahun-penjara
Page 24 of 58

However, field fact showed that the majority of children who were involved in commercial
and non-commercial sexual exploitation also had experienced online sexual abuse. They
might be sold by someone else or pimp or voluntarily sold themselves through social media
such as Facebook, Blackberry Messenger and Twitter. Actually, the number of cases of
commercial sexual exploitation of children and that of non-commercial purposes was very
high. Yayasan Masyarakat Sehat, for example, recorded 257 cases in Bandung.
B. FACTORS CAUSING ONLINE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN
There were some internal and external factors causing online sexual abuse of children. For
internal factors, the lack of parents’ understanding of online activities done by their children
has become one of the main causes.
“Even, a survey conducted by National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
showed that 20% of parents did not know their children’s email address, nickname
instant messaging and computer login password. Consequently, they had less control over
the use of computer by their children at home and even, it could be said that they did not
have control at all.”34
Results of MarkPlus Insight Netizen Survey 2013 showed that currently there were 74.6
million internet users in Indonesia. Internet users in Indonesia were dominated by young
people between the ages of 15-22 years (42%), middle-aged people between the ages of 36-
45 years (10%) and old people between the ages of 46-55 years (5%). The small percentage
of those between the ages of 36-45 years and those between the ages of 46-55 years who
accessed internet showed that 80%-95% of old people did not access and know internet. 35
Most parents in Indonesia not only did not know their children’s email address, social media
account and password but also had never accessed internet.
This statement was in line with what Kisnu Widakso, a criminologist from University of
Indonesia who had ever conducted a survey and a series of activities related to online sexual
abuse of children, said. According to an expert in the field of criminology, there are two types
34
Ibid 2
35
MarPlus Insight's Indonesia, Indonesia Internet Users Survey 2013, Jakarta: Marketeers Magazine,
November 2013 Edition
Page 25 of 58

of parents who make their children vulnerable to online sexual abuse. First, parents who are
not technology literate so that they think that by operating computer and using internet
service, for example in internet café, their children will be safer than playing outside with their
friends. This type of parents are unaware of the danger of social media, online game and
harmful websites such as gambling and porn websites. Children are not only less control but
also do not receive appropriate guidance on how to use internet safely, especially to prevent
themselves from the exposure of pornographic materials and cyber-crime by other people.36
Second, parents who have high levels of education and economic status who can afford to
buy their children various electronic devices but do not have enough time and even do not
have control over the use of these electronic devices. As if, this type of parents “exposes”
their children to online sexual abuse because they give their children various high tech
electronic devices but they do not control and guide their children on how to use them
wisely. This situation is usually found in big cities, especially in Jakarta.
Elvi Hendrani, Assistant Deputy for Child Sexual Exploitation of Ministry of Women’s
Empowerment and Child Protection, also said that children could be easily trapped in
criminals’ camouflage that intentionally used children for sexual purposes or illicit business
through online media. Teenagers could be easily coerced and lured. They would be more
vulnerable when they were lured by prostitution syndicate through online media. They would
be more vulnerable if they were lured by a prostitution syndicate through online media. This
period is called puberty. During puberty, children’s mental develops from entropy condition
to negentropy condition37
. Both men and women who are in negantropy condition feel that
they are complete, act clearly and certain so that they can be easily lured with any promise
and by anyone. 38
Similar situation also occurred in Surabaya. Muhammad Umar, a paralegal from SCCC, said:
36
An interview with Kisnu Widakso on 20 September 2013
37
Entropy condition is a condition in which human’s awareness has not been in a good order.
Meanwhile, negentropy condition is a condition in which awareness has been in a good order and one
knowledge is related to another. Sarlito Wirawan Sarwono, Psikologi Remaja, (Jakarta: Rajawali Press,
2006), p. 6
38
Ibid, p. 11-12
Page 26 of 58

“Broken children come from not only poor families but also rich ones because they do
not receive attention from their parents. Thus, they try to work to earn money.”
Family can be a leading factor of the involvement of children in prostitution. It is the nearest
environment to rear and educate children for the first time. It is the smallest unit of society but
the strongest environment to rear children. Therefore, family plays the most important role in
child development. Abnormal and broken family can lead children to prostitution.
In principle, family structure in a broken family is incomplete. Abnormal family occurs not
only in a broken family but also in a modern society, especially quasi broken home, in which
both parents still live together but they are too busy that they do not have time to pay
attention to their children’s education. 39
Then, Edward Dewaruci added:
“Even, sometimes it was not until their children were on trial that some parents started to
aware that their children become a victim. The children would feel happy if their parents
felt ashamed on their trial because so far they had been disappointed of their broken
family. Since they did not receive love and attention from their parents, they took
vengeance on them through this case. So, they would feel satisfied if their parents were
embarrassed by the judges or police”.
Broken family or disharmonious family factor expressed by our informant from SCCC was also
affirmed by other informant from Yayasan Embun Surabaya, Joris Lato. He said that family
disharmony made children feel uncomfortable at home and they felt more comfortable when
they were with their friends, girlfriend/boyfriend or in a night club. Then, they started to
practice free sex, use drugs and drink alchohol. The rights of children from disharmonious
family were often violated. For example, their parents did not give them love and affection,
ignored their education, had more than one house, etc. In addition, they were often exposed
to free and unprotected sex.40
39
Bimo Walgito, Kenakalan Anak (Juvenile Delinguency), (Yogyakarta: Yayasan Penerbitan Fakultas
Psikologi UGM, 1982), p. 11.
40
An interview with Joris Latu of Yayasan Embun Surabaya
Page 27 of 58

Both broken home and quasi broken home could cause disharmony in family so that it would
give a negative impact on child development. Children from disharmonious family could be
easily frustrated so that it would lead them to juvenile delinquency. It is a fact that many
children are involved in a crime because of family disintegration.
In addition to interviews with informants, we also collected data on the causes of online
sexual abuse from children who had been involved in online sexual abuse. Most of
respondents we interviewed were children from disharmonious families.
CASE STUDY 2
CHILD VICTIM FROM DISHARMONIOUS FAMILY
In addition to disharmonious family which could cause children vulnerable to online sexual
abuse, some informants and respondents said that lifestyle such as consumerism also made
children at risk of online sexual abuse. Muhammad Umar41
said:
“As far as we understand, children are vulnerable to online sexual abuse because of
lifestyle. They want to go to beauty salon, buy Blackberry and nice clothes as well as treat
their friends. However, money given by their family is not enough. If their parents give
41
Muhammad Umar is a paralegal at Surabaya Children Crisis Center (SCCC)
Our respondents, Ar and R, said that their parents had got divorced. Ar said that before the
divorce, her father often had an affair with other woman. She said, “My family is aware that
my father often has an affair with other woman. After getting married with my mother, my
father often has an affair with other woman. Maybe, this has affected me (becoming victim
of online sexual abuse). So, I am aware that maybe this is the result of what my father has
done in the past.” Even, when Ar became a victim of online sexual abuse, her parents had
just got divorced. Therefore, she was afraid to tell her parents her case.
M also had a disharmonious family. Her parents lived apart because her father left her
family. After being left by her father, M and her mother had to rent a house and live in
misery. She said, “My mother used to be a laundress but she quit her job last month. My
father lives apart from my family. I meet him once in two or three years. So, I have been
accustomed to not seeing him since my childhood. My family also did not try to find me
when I did not go home”.
Page 28 of 58

them IDR 100,000 every week, it will not be enough to buy hand phone and clothes, go
to beauty salon and treat their friends”.
Then, Edward stressed this by giving the following statement:
“Children spend the money for fun and self-existence. They think that they will exist if
they are consumptive. The more consumptive they are, the cooler they will be in the
eyes of their friends. That is what they are trying to pursue in their lives”.
There were some factors that made children vulnerable to prostitution such as poverty, life
style and lack of education. 42
During our interviews with the informants, we found a fact that
prostitution is a compensation to adjust their lives to the glamorous lives of the rich.
Consumerism entangled teenagers and led them into prostitution business. Due to their
consumerism, they started thinking of an easy way to make much money.
CASE STUDY 3
VICTIM
Other respondent, M, also said that children were involved in prostitution because they
wanted to earn money easily and were reluctant to find a legal work. The following is a
statement given by M:
42
Tjahjo Purnomo and Ashadi Siregar, Dolly Membedah Dunia Pelacuran Surabaya, Kasus Kompleks
Pelacuran Dolly, (Jakarta: Grafiti Pers , Cet.1, 1983), p. 13.
A child we interviewed, P, said that some children involved in online prostitution would
voluntarily upload their naked photos to Facebook to enable them to earn money from
their customers. The following is a statement given by P:
“I have five friends who have uploaded their naked photos. They just followed what my first
friend had done. Then, I asked them why they did that. They said that they needed money
and wanted to have a glamorous life. They also hoped that others would think that they were
rich although actually they were poor. Then, I asked them what they would do if they were
trafficked. They knew nothing about trafficking. Then, I suggested them to close their online
prostitution business on Facebook and find another job because they have certificate. I
advised them not to do evil things. Otherwise, they would be a victim like me. Unfortunately,
they refused to do so. Even, they have a more glamorous life than that of in Facebook.”
Page 29 of 58

“Most of them refused to find legal work. They said that if they became a waitress, they
would only receive IDR 300,000 per month. Meanwhile, if they became a prostitute, they
would earn IDR 300,000 per night. Even, they might earn that amount within half hour”
Other factor which was often mentioned by victims during our interviews with them was
economic factor.
“I am interested in the work because I can earn much money. Furthermore, I have two
siblings who still go to school. Since my parents are unemployed, I have to help and
support them”43
Two victims had to become the family breadwinners because their parents were unemployed.
This, of course, was an imbalance of parenting pattern from parents. Although their parents
did not ask them to work, when they were offered a job by someone else to enable them to
make money and help improve their family’s economic condition, they would be directly
interested in and accept the job. Instead of their parents, children were responsible for
meeting family needs.
Meanwhile, two other victims were single parent who had children and they, therefore, had
to meet their own needs and those of their children.
“I have a 1-year-old child. My husband and I have got divorced. It is me who raise our
daughter. I need IDR 1,000,000 to only buy his milk. I need more money to meet other
needs. So, becoming a sex worker is one of the solutions.” 44
Becoming a single parent for those who have not yet reached the age of majority due to
marriage by accident is an irony in the lives of children who are victims of sexual exploitation.
Nevertheless, economic factor was also closely related to family. It was their family’s
economic needs that encouraged them to survive in this world. They needed much money.
Since all of the victims were school dropouts and thus did not have skill, online prostitution
had been perceived as the only way to earn much money to enable them to meet their
needs.
43
Interview with SS, victim, on Tuesday, 30 July 2013.
44
Interview with AC, victim, on Monday, 29 July 2013.
Page 30 of 58

If family factor that we had explained above became the main factor, other factor such as peer
factor became a secondary factor. The five victims said that they had been influenced by their
peers both within and outside school. Even, some of them knew their peers from Facebook.
“At that time, I got acquainted with a man on Facebook. Then, he offered me a job in
Bandung. Since at the time I had dropped out of school and was unemployed, I just
accepted the job. In fact, I was sold in a karaoke longue in Palembang.”45
Since they felt comfortable when they were outside their house, they would be a loyalist to their
groups and therefore were influenced by their When they become a sex worker, they would live
a glamorous life. Once again, money is the first triggering factor of the involvement of children in
prostitution business. Four of five victims in Bandung said that they were biker gang members.
“When I was an elementary school student, I became a leader of a biker gang. So, I am
not afraid of anything.” 46
“It was my neighborhood and friends that made me like this. I joined a biker gang
because at that time many of my friends joined biker gang too.” 47
“I have five friends. All of them have been trapped in prostitution and are school dropouts.”48
Biker gang is an exclusive gang and is related to prostitution business. Most of children were
at high risk of sexual abuse due to broken family and friendship. Then, lifestyle was a part of
their friendship which finally made them unable to escape from their group or community. In
line with this, Ahmad Muhammad, the Coordinator of Yayasan Masyarakat Sehat, said:
“Lifestyle is a must as they enter their community. Then, they will compete because
they are envious of their friends, especially those who have a glamorous life so that
they just follow what their friends have done to enable them to make money
easily.” 49
45
Interview with RN, victim, on Tuesday, 30 July 2013.
46
Interview with CY, victim, on Monday, 29 July 2013.
47
Interview with UI, victim, on Monday, 29 July 2013.
48
Interview with SS, victim, on Tuesday, 30 July 2013.
49
Interview with Coordinator of Yayasan Masyarakat Sehat, Ahmad Muhammad, on Monday, 29 July
2013.
Page 31 of 58

Based on our field survey and interviews with informants from Jakarta, Bandung and
Surabaya, we found a fact that there were some factors that made children vulnerable to
online sexual abuse such as family, poverty, life style and peer pressure. However, the most
dominant factor was family. All of our informants who were victims of online sexual abuse of
children came from a disharmonious family. Their parents also did not have any knowledge
about internet and its dangers for children. Meanwhile, life style and poverty became main
factors of the involvement of our informants from Bandung in prostitution.
C. DISTRIBUTION
Silvester Simamora, an investigator at Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Headquarter of
Indonesian Police, said that so far cases of online sexual abuse of children which were
reported by foreign agencies such as Australian Federal Police (AFP) and US ICE to Cyber
Crime Unit of the Headquarter of Indonesian Police because they traced and found that IP
addresses used by the abusers to upload victims’ photos to paedophile forums were from
Indonesia. One month ago, Cyber Crime Unit of the Headquarter of Indonesian Police just
received a report from abroad that there was an Indonesian man who had uploaded his video
having sex with a boy. Then, the man asked the boy to have sex with other boy, recorded the
sexual activity and uploaded the video to the internet.
Different definitions of online sexual abuse of children had an influence on statistical data on
the distribution of cases of online sexual abuse of children. As we explained above, according
to the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Headquarter of Indonesian Police, online sexual
abuse of children is cases in which children become sexual object whose photos and videos
are uploaded to special forums such as pedophile forums. In general, we know that online
sexual abuse is a crime which occurs on the Internet such as social media. For example,
kidnapping or rape by a friend on facebook. In fact, Cyber Crime Unit of the Headquarter of
Indonesian Police does not categorize such cases as cyber-crime and online sexual abuse. As
a consequent, Cyber Crime Unit of the Headquarter of Indonesian Police did not have specific
data on the distribution of cases of online sexual abuse of children because there were a lot of
cases which were not reported to police.
Page 32 of 58

Five victims we interviewed in Bandung lived in different areas in the city such as Sukajadi,
Dipati Ukur, Padasuka, Jln. Gagak and Jln. Mustopa. Some of them lived with their parents while
others lived in a rented house. Although they came from different areas in Bandung, four of the
five victims we interviewed operated under a same online prostitution syndicate and pimp.
One of the victims operating in Bandung said that her customers came from not only Bandung
but also other areas such as Jakarta, Kalimantan, Palembang and Lampung.
She knew her abuser on Facebook and was sold in a karaoke longue in Palembang. There, the
karaoke longue owner and her so called friends who were also song guides often abused her. 50
Police said that it would take a long time to investigate other cases of online sexual abuse of
children in Bandung. This is because cyber crime is borderless and it is, therefore, difficult to
locate the perpetrator. This was also acknowledged by the Unit Head 4 of Sub Sector 2 of
Cyber Crime Unit of West Java Regional Police:
“Cyber-crime is borderless. Since it covers a wider area, it takes a long time to
investigate the case. We had to investigate how they communicated among them
and booked three victims to check in the hotel. It also took a long time to make
the victims speak and reveal the pimp because they felt that the pimp did not
harm them. Even, they thought that the pimp had helped them to make money. It
was from these three victims that we identified the IPB student. Although her
syndicate was not big, we believed that there is a big syndicate in Indonesia,
especially in Bandung.”51
Unlike Bandung, the distribution of victims of online sexual abuse of children could be
mapped based on their school characteristics. Most of them were vocational high school
students, especially those majoring in tourism. In the case of Endry Margarini alias Vey (20
years), the victims were still very young. They were between the ages of 14 and 16 and were
senior high school and tourism school students in Surabaya.52
According to information from
50
An interview with RN, victim, on 29 July 2013
51
An interview with Unit 4 Head of Sub Sector 2 of Cyber Crime Unit of West Java Regional Police,
Catur Hari Santosa, on Friday, 26 July 2013.
52
Prostitusi via Facebook Dibongkar. Accessed from:http://www.hariansumutpos.com/arsip/?p=28875
Page 33 of 58

our informants from SCCC, most of victims of online sexual abuse of children were
vocational high school students, especially those majoring in tourism and beauty saloon. 53
Many of the child victims of online prostitution came from the school.
D. SYNDICATES
Abuser used different methods to lure the victims so that they managed to take their naked
photo or have sex. Silvester Simamora, an investigator from Cyber Crime Unit of Criminal
Investigation Bureau of the Headquarter of Indonesian Police, informed that in the cyber
crime case in Bali, the abuser only approached his students and then invited them to swim
together before he took their nude photos and distributed them in pedophile forums in
Australia. Meanwhile, similar case, which occurred in Batam, had different method because
the victims were street children. The abuser approached them by giving them money, inviting
them go for a walk and treating them to a dinner or lunch outside. Then, he took their nude
photos and distributed them in pedophile forums.
Meanwhile, most online prostitution cases on Facebook involved mentally unstable
teenagers54
and the abusers approached these teenagers by becoming their friends in
chatting room. After the victims trusted the abusers, they asked the victims to meet them in
the agreed location. There, the victims were raped or sexually abused.55
The use of this
method was usually followed by threat to distribute victims’ photos in social media.56
The first online child trafficking syndicates were uncovered in 2010. The trafficking syndicates
were arrested in Malibu Hotel Surabaya. There were a total of three suspects: Endry Margarini
53
An interview with Eward Dewaruci of SCCC on 29 July 2013
54
It had been explained above that children involved in online prostitution came from disharmonious
families. Since they could easily feel frustrated and experience psychological conflicts, their emotion
was unstable.
55
Accessed on 25 July 2013 at 2 p.m. from:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/01/27/looking-safe-ground-internet.html
56
An interview with Arofah on 29 July 2013 Source: Imam Wahyudiyanta, Sindikat Pelacuran Anak Via
Facebook Dibongkar. Accessed from:
http://news.detik.com/surabaya/read/2010/01/31/163616/1289801/466/sindikat-pelacuran-anak-via-
facebook-dibongkar
Page 34 of 58

alias Vey (20 years) who lives in Dukuh Kupang Timur, Achmad Afif Muslichin (20 years) who
lives in Candi, Sidoarjo, and LS (15 years) who lives in Keputran.57
CASE STUDY 4
MODUS OPERANDI OF THE SYNDICATE
CASE STUDY 5
SYNDICATE
57
Imam Wahyudiyanta, Sindikat Pelacuran Anak Via Facebook Dibongkar. Accessed from:
http://news.detik.com/surabaya/read/2010/01/31/163616/1289801/466/sindikat-pelacuran-anak-via-
facebook-dibongkar
Each member of the trafficking syndicates played a different role. Vey provided child sex
workers; Afif looked for customers and; LS recruited child sex workers. The trafficked children
were senior high school students between the ages of 14 and 16 years. The sexual transaction
was done online. Customers who wanted to date these young girls had to add Vey’s Facebook
account. Her email address is surabaya_girls@***.com. After that, they could book these
children with the help of Afif through chat rooms such as Yahoo Messenger or MiRC.
During the chatting, these customers could choose, book and bargain. Photos of these
children were put on Facebook with different poses and styles. Meanwhile, in the chatting
room, Afif might present children whom the customers wanted to date. They sold these child
sex workers between IDR 600,000 and IDR 800,000. The suspects were prosecuted under
Article 2 jo. 17 of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 21 Year 2007 on the Eradication
of the Criminal Act of Trafficking in Persons and/or Article 88 of Law of the Republic of
Indonesia Number 23 Year 2002 on Child Protection.
Other online prostitution syndicate which was successfully uncovered by police was that of
Keyko’s. At the end of August 2012, East Java Regional Police succeeded to reveal a high-
class commercial sex worker syndicate under the control of Yunita alias Keyko. In running
her illegal prostitution business, the suspect had never met pimps and sex workers operating
under the control of her syndicate. All transactions were done through Blackberry
Messenger. Keyko often put photos of her newest prostitutes on her Blackberry profile.
When a customer contacted the suspect via Blackberry, he had booked the woman he
wanted to date. Then, she contacted the pimp in which the customer lived. After ensuring
that the booked sex worker was available, the customer was asked to transfer certain
amounts of money to Keyko’s account number in Bank Central Asia.
Page 35 of 58

She recruited the pimps and sex workers very carefully. 58
Her sex workers usually were those
who had a hedonic lifestyle. Consequently, they voluntarily sold themselves to earn money so
that their friends would think that they were rich.59
Police was suspicious that Keyko employed commercial child sex workers.60
The Head of
Public Relations of East Java Regional Police believed that children were among thousands of
sex workers operating under Keyko’s control.61
Investigators from City Resort Police of Surabaya continued to investigate prostitution
syndicates run by a child pimp in Surabaya, East Java. They said that prostitution syndicate run
by Nita (pseudonym) which targeted junior high school students in Surabaya was better than
that of run by Keyko which had about 2,600 commercial sex workers throughout Indonesia.62
The suspect said that she had just run her prostitution business for six months and run it in a
58
Sandi Facebook untuk Menyewa Anak Buah Keyko. Accessed
from:http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2012/09/24/064431574/Sandi-Facebook-untuk-Menyewa-
Anak-Buah-Keyko
59
Penghasilan Bisnis Haram Keyko Rp 25 Juta per Hari. Accessed
from:http://www.tempo.co/read/news/2012/09/24/064431586/Penghasilan-Bisnis-Haram-Keyko-Rp-
25-Juta-per-Hari
60
It was believed that Keyko involved children in her prostitution syndicate. However, this still could
not be proven because police tried to hide results of her trial. Even, her trial was closed to the public.
See Sidang Ratu Mucikari Keyko Berlangsung Tertutup. Accessed from:
http://www.centroone.com/news/2012/10/5r/sidang-ratu-mucikari-keyko-berlangsung-tertutup/. See
also Keyko Dicurigai Jual Anak di Bawah Umur. Accessed
from:http://news.detik.com/surabaya/read/2012/09/15/230007/2020753/466/keyko-dicurigai-jual-
anak-di-bawah-umur
61
Keyko’s prostitution syndicate offered commercial sex workers from different backgrounds such as
Sales Promotion Girl (SPG), bank worker, lady escort and photo model. Their rate was at least 4 million
rupiahs. This high rate, of course, indicated that her customers came from middle and upper class
societies. In addition to be booked with a high price, commercial sex workers operating under Keyko’s
prostitution syndicate also could be taken abroad by their customers. Rates for dating, vacation and
shopping with sex workers operating under Keyko’s prostitution syndicate ranged between USD 2,000
– 5,000 (exchange rate: USD 1 = IDR 9,500). Ibid
62
Wah, Prostitusi Germo Cilik Lebih Rapi dari Jaringan Keyko. Accessed
from:http://surabaya.okezone.com/read/2013/06/12/519/820914/wah-prostitusi-germo-cilik-lebih-rapi-
dari-jaringan-keyko
Page 36 of 58

simple way. Nita had transactions with her potential customers by using Blackberry
Messenger (BBM). Then, she sent them her friends’ photos and their rates.63
In Bandung, the perpetrator of online prostitution is called “Mamih”, someone who offered
the victims to customers. They used a cadrization system in which victims who had experience
in prostitution business then became a pimp and sold other children. In this case, it was not
about their age but their skill and accessibility. Even, the four victims of online prostitution
were sold by their own peer. She offered the victims by using Blackberry Messenger but the
sexual transaction was done in a hotel. Before checking in the hotel, the pimp directly took
the victims to the hotel. Like online prostitution, trafficked children also had a pimp whose task
was to manage them. Most of them operated in karaoke longues. However, the trafficking
syndicate was usually called agent. One victim who was a trafficked child said that she had
two agents and it was her two agents who sold her to a pimp in Palembang.
CASE STUDY 6
CHILD SYNDICATES
63
Mucikari Cilik, Diringkus Polrestabes Surabaya Saat Transaksi. Accessed
from:http://www.deliknews.com/2013/06/astagamucikari-cilik-diringkus-polrestabes-surabaya-saat-
transaksi/#.UgyIKNJaacw Source: Polisi Temukan 8 Siswi SMP Korban Mucikari Cilik, accessed from:
http://www.tribunnews.com/regional/2013/06/11/polisi-temukan-8-siswi-smp-korban-mucikari-cilik
The Head of Public Relations of City Resort Police of Surabaya said that Nita would receive
IDR 250,000 for each sexual transaction. Actually, a child sex worker was sold IDR 750,000
but she had to share the money to the pimp. The child received IDR 500,000 while the
pimp, Nita, received IDR 250,000.
Nita, a child pimp who was a junior high school student, had special strategy in recruiting other
children. According to the Head of Sub Unit Vice Control (VC) of General Crime Unit of City
Resort Police of Surabaya, Iptu Teguh Setiawan, some of the eight students were NA’s
schoolmates while others came from different schools. Teguh said, “The suspect operated not
only in her school but also in other schools and her prostitution syndicate is well organized. In
luring her potential victims, the suspect often showed them her luxurious properties such as
tablet, hand phone and jewelry. She spent money she had got from her customers to by these
properties. Thus, those who want such luxurious things have to join her.”
Page 37 of 58

CASE STUDY 6
BANDUNG ONLINE PROSTITUTION SYNDICATE
Source: An interview with the Coordinator of Yayasan Masyarakat Sehat, Ahmad Muhammad, on
Monday, 29 July 2013.
According to one of the victims who currently became a pimp, she knew all transaction
processes, including hotel check in, when she became a pimp in a karaoke longue in
Bandung. Then, there were many karaoke loungue visitors who asked her to provide them
with child prostitutes. Then, her business expanded from karaoke lounge to hotel check-in. In
recruiting these child sex workers, she said that in most cases, it was these children who
came to her and asked for her a job.
If children feel comfortable when they are outside and join a biker gang, they will be at a high
risk of sexual exploitation and prostitution business. This is because some of their peers work
as sex broker or pimp, have access to customers and are able to arrange sexual transaction
via Facebook or Blackberry Messenger. Their skill and accessibility play an important role
here. They do not formally recruit these children. It is a natural process in their social and
cultural practices such as materialistic and competition.
The pimp sold these children on Facebook, Twitter and the most effective way by using
Blackberry Messenger. When a customer ordered a child sex worker, the sexual transaction
would be done in a hotel. According to one of the pimps, she would directly take the child to
the customer for sexual transaction in a hotel. The prices of these child sex workers vary,
depending on the level of their customers. Some of them were expensive while others were
cheap. However, these child sex workers had to share the money to their pimp because she
had helped them find the customer or client. Cheap sex workers are paid between IDR
200,000-IDR 300,000. Standard sex workers are paid between IDR 500,000-IDR 800,000.
Meanwhile, elite sex workers are paid IDR 1,000,000-IDR 10,000,000. However, the amounts
have not yet been cut by the pimp. The pimp usually will receive about IDR 100,000 from
cheap sex workers.
Page 38 of 58

CASE STUDY 7
Source: An interview with a pimp on 28 July 2013
In Bandung, “Mamih” was a small prostitution syndicate which worked independently to sell
children. It was not a well-structured organization or syndicate. There was only one person who
had experience in prostitution business and run the online prostitution business. This prostitution
business was similar to those of www.cewekbisyar.com and www.bogorcantik.blogspot.com
which were run by one administrator only. Although it was not a big prostitution syndicate, it did
not mean that there was no a well-organized prostitution syndicate in Bandung. According to
West Java Regional Police, they had successfully identified other two or four people and hoped
that they would be able to uncover a bigger prostitution syndicate from them.64
Pimps who controlled a small prostitution syndicate like Mamih was often not arrested or
prosecuted by police. Although some of them were arrested, their cases were not sent to
court due to various reasons. This was because they were backed up by biker gangs. The
pimp we interviewed was also a biker gang member. Police found particularly difficult to
arrest biker gangs in Bandung. Even, in some cases, police who arrested them were offered
to have sex with one of children who was a biker gang member so that they would be willing
to release them. This had made these cases remained hidden in Bandung.
64
Polda Jabar Segera Bongkar Situs Prostitusi Lainnya. Accessed on Thursday, 7 February 2013 from:
http://news.detik.com/bandung/read/2013/02/09/131327/2165574/486/polda-jabar-segera-bongkar-
situs-prostitusi-lainnya
A pimp could use her incomes to not only meet her basic needs but also buy a car and a
house. One of the pimps said that when she became a pimp in Bandung and Jakarta, she
could earn 30 million rupiahs per month. However, her incomes had decreased because she
no longer looked for customers in Jakarta. Additionally, Yayasan Masyarakat Sehat had
recruited her to be a program officer for their two-year CSEC elimination program. Yet, she
has not yet quit her job as a pimp and thus she sometimes still helps her sex workers find their
customer. She said, “When I was a hard-working pimp, I could earn 30 million rupiahs per
month. Thus, I could buy a house and a car. Unfortunately, I had sold all of them because at
that time I needed money to buy shabu. Since I become a program officer here, I am busy
and do not have time to sell children. However, I sometimes still do that.”
Page 39 of 58

PART THREE
EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE ONLINE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF
CHILDREN
A. PREVENTION
One of ways to eliminate child sexual abuse is by preventing it from happening. Some experts
have given general definitions of prevention. According to the National Crime Prevention
Institute, crime prevention is a process of anticipation, identification and risk estimation of the
possibility crime to happen and take an initiation or a series of actions to eliminate or
minimize crime. This definition will be used as a framework to study variables for the
prevention of online sexual abuse of children.
Tony Seno, National Technology of Microsoft Indonesia, explained that parents should use
Parental Control in their computer so that they could protect their children from the negative
impacts of internet. This Parental Control could be activated easily in computer and could be
downloaded for free. With the Parenting Control, children would not be able to visit harmful
websites. Advanced technology also could make children closer to sex predators because
internet was one of media they could use.65
Nawala Nusantara offerred internet filtering with the name DNS Nawala in cooperation with
RIM and local internet providers such as Indosat and Telkomsel. Filtering is different from
blocking because by being filtered, harmful websites still could be accessed by those who did
not use DNS Nawala. M. Yamin, the Executive Head of Nawala Indonesia, said that DNS
Nawala was not an obligation for internet users; they might use it voluntarily so that with little
knowledge of IT it could be easily used to block harmful websites.
Safe and healthy internet movement initiated by ID Kita Kompasiana also played a role in the
prevention of online sexual abuse of children and internet abuse. Tovanno Valentino of ID
Kita explained that there were still many community members who were technology illiterate
so that they could be easy targets of technology abuse. ID Kita campaigned safe and healthy
65
Accessed from: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/01/27/looking-safe-ground-internet.html
Page 41 of 58

internet movement in areas outside Jakarta to protect people in the target areas from online
sexual abuse of children.
M. Yamin of Nawala Nusantara said that many pornographic websites used keywords related
to education so that they could be easily accessed by children.
Like ID Kita and Nawala Nusantara, ICT Watch also had a movement called “healthy
internet”. Through this movement, they conducted roadshows to cities throughout Indonesia.
ICT Watch also had programs which specially target young people such as blog competition.
This blog competition aim to add positive contents on the Internet. Ilman, the founder of
AnakUIdotCom who had ever won the competition, said that they were free to choose the
blog contents as long as they were useful for the visitors. In addition to the blog competition,
ICT Watch provided free web hosting to institutions or individuals who wanted to make
educative and informative blogs to add positive contents on the Internet. So, ICT Watch tried
to make internet as informative and educative media by facilitating internet users with free
web hosting services and weekly blog competition.
ICT Watch approached young people by telling them that internet should not be merely used
to search pornographic contents.66
It also could be used as an entertainment media by
watching educative films.
In addition to implementing prevention program through healthy internet use, Prodita
Sabarini of the Jakarta Post stressed the importance of teaching children about privacy
protection.
“I think it is particularly important to teach children how to keep their privacy in
social media so that they will not easily trust people they have just known through
social media.”
66
A 2007 survey showed that the average age of internet users who accessed pornographic materials
was 11 years. Meanwhile, according to Survey Indonesia in 2008, 66% of 1,625 elementary school
students at fourth-sixth grades in Jabodetabek had accessed online pornographic contents (24%
through comics, 18% through online games, 16% through porn websites and 14% through cellular
phone). Accessed from: http://alhikmah.ac.id/2012/kejahatan-online-dan-pentingnya-orangtua-melek-
internet/ on 27 July 2013
Page 42 of 58

This aim to prevent children from getting acquainted with strangers in social media which
would make them at a high risk ofsexual abuse, rape and kidnapping.
Parenting program and community participation in each area had to be one of government’s
strategies in formulating the prevention of online sexual abuse of children. Edward Dewaruci
said that children should be friend with their parents first on Facebook so that they would
know their children’s friends. One of parenting materials initiated by SCCC was that parents
should understand IT and online media which were often used by their children. By
understanding them, it was hoped that parents would be able to educate and supervise their
children properly to prevent them from being trapped in the situation of online sexual abuse.
One of parenting materials related to parenting pattern was a description of how parents
should educate their children. In the parenting materials, Rivanto explained and discussed
about what parents usually did from 6 a.m. to 12 midnight. Most of parents answered that
their activities were only cooking, shopping, watching TV serials, attending family gathering,
etc. Rivanto concretely showed parents that they only spent two hours to accompany and
supervise their children. They were unaware that so far they only supervised their children for
two hours a day.67
The problem was that it was ineffective to supervise and monitor their children for two hours a
day. This was expressed during a family discussion forum conducted by Rivanto. Most of
parents said that they spent the two hours with their children while watching television. In
most cases, they only asked their children about their schooling and what they had learned in
school. So, parents were unaware that so far they did not properly supervise and guide their
children.68
Edward Dewaruci also initiated a familyhood meeting program. So far, SCCC had involved five
or six parents whose children were victims of sexual abuse.69
During the familyhood meeting
program, counselors from Surabaya Children Crisis Center and parents discussed and shared
about the root causes of problems faced by their children and what would be the best
67
Interview with Riyanto of SCCC on 30 July 2013
68
Ibid
69
An interview with Edward Dewaruci of SCCC on 30 July 2013
Page 43 of 58

solutions to these problems. This program could facilitate parents and their children in solving
these problems. This program was strategic because one of the factors of the involvement of
children in online sexual abuse in Surabaya was inharmonious family.
This strategy and parenting program were crucial for the prevention of online sexual abuse of
children because family was one of main factors that made children vulnerable to online
sexual abuse. Parents had to be aware of the dangers of online media for children. It was
expected that parents who could adjust their parenting pattern to the development of
information technology would be able to supervise their children and anticipate the negative
impacts of online media. Parents had to be able to detect their children’s behaviors early.
The Ministry of Communication and Information needed to always block porn-related
websites although it was not easy to deal with cyber crimes. When one or two websites had
been blocked, similar websites would appear on the Internet. However, this should be done
to, at least, prevent children from accessing such harmful websites. Regarding to this, the Unit
Head 4 of Sub Sector 2 of Cyber Crime Unit of West Java Regional Police said:
“The Ministry of Communication and Information can cooperate with other parties
which are experts in the field to help them block such websites which continue to
appear on the Internet when they are blocked. We need to cooperate in preventing
this. We also can cooperate with internet providers to block these websites.”70
B. PROTECTION
Actually, the existing and applicable laws in Indonesia such as Criminal Code, Law Number
23 Year 2002 on Child Protection, Law Number 11 Year 2008 on Electronic Information and
Transactions, Law Number 21 Year 2007 on the Eradication of the Criminal Acts of Trafficking
in Persons and Law Number 44 Year 2008 on Pornography. could be used to effectively
criminalize online child sexual abusers. However, there were some factors which made
difficult to properly handle these cases because the abusers were not severely punished.
During our interview with Silvester Simamora, an investigator from the Criminal Investigation
70
An interview with the Unit Head 4 of Sub Sector 2 of Cyber Crime Unit of West Java Regional
Police, Catur Hari Santosa SH MH, on Friday, 26 July 2013
Page 44 of 58

Bureau of the Headquarter of Indonesian Police, he said that actually laws in Indonesia could
be used to effectively criminalize online child sexual abusers. Indonesian laws that could be
used to prosecute the abusers include Law on Pornography, Law on Electronic Information
and Transactions, Law on Child Protection and Law on the Eradication of the Criminal Act of
Trafficking in Persons.
Law Number 10 Year 2012 on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the
Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child
Pornography stipulates that child pornography is a crime against humanity that
must be eradicated.
Section 1 of Article 27 of Law Number 11 Year 2008 on Electronic Information and
Transactions stipulates that:
“Any person who knowingly and without authority distributes and/or transmits
and/or causes to be accessible Electronic Information and/or Electronic Records
with contents against propriety”.
Any person who distributes photos or videos against decency shall be sentenced to
imprisonment not exceeding 6 (six) years and/or fine not exceeding IDR 1,000,000,000 (one
billion rupiah).
Articles 81 and 82 of Law Number 23 Year 2002 on Child Protection clearly criminalize
anyone who sexually or non sexually abuses children and shall be subject to maximum term of
imprisonment of 15 (fifteen) years and a minimum term of three (3) years and a maximum fine
of IDR 300,000,000 (three hundred million rupiah) and a minimum fine of IDR 60,000,000
(sixty million rupiah). Meanwhile, Article 83 stipulates that every person who trades, sells or
kidnaps a child shall be subject to the same punishments for Articles 81 and 82.
During our interview with Elvi Herdianti of Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child
Protection, she said that currently, Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection
was amending Law on Child Protection. The amendment aimed to criminalize child
prostitute’s customers. She also said that there were many customers who were lightly
punished because judges handling cases of child sexual abuse did not have proper
understanding of Law on Child Protection. Therefore, she added that judges should have a
Page 45 of 58

good understanding of Law on Child Protection to enable them to give maximum or severe
punishment to child abusers.
In addition to the need to amend some provisions of Law Number 23 Year 2003 on Child
Protection and Law Number 21 Year 2007 on the Eradication of the Criminal Acts of
Trafficking in Persons, it is also important to address gaps in judiciary process. According to
Kisnu Widagso, a criminologist from University of Indonesia, the weak implementation of laws
in Indonesia, especially to criminalize online child sexual abusers, was caused by slow
response from police. He explained that police became an entry point for the handling of
cases of online sexual abuse of children. Consequently, if police could not handle them
properly, the legal process would not be good either. He also criticized that the Cyber Crime
Unit was lack of experts in cyber crime. As a consequence, it could not work effectively.
Tony Seno of Microsoft Indonesia added that actually there were some technologies that
could be used to investigate cases of online sexual abuse of children. He said that the
Indonesian Police had used technologies developed by Microsoft such as Photo DNA and
Child Exploitation and Tracking System (CETS). Like Kisnu Widagso, Tony Seno also said that
the lack of human resources who had a good understanding of IT made the Cyber Crime Unit
could not properly handle cases of online sexual abuse of children.
During our FGD, a blogger said that government should protect those who actually did not
access pornography but were exposed to pornographic links sent via email spam and out of
control pop-up ad. Stakeholders in Indonesia should pay special attention to the protection of
internet users so that they would not be exposed to pornography.
Actually, Indonesia has had laws that could be used to criminalize online child abusers.
However, the lack of human resources and weak cooperation among government institutions
made it difficult to give more severe punishment to the abusers.
Page 46 of 58

C. REHABILITATION
Rehabilitation can have two sides. The first side is rehabilitation for the abusers and the
second side is rehabilitation for victims. According to Herbert L. Packer, criminals need
rehabilitation because legal sanctions must be oriented to the individuals instead of their
actions. The point is how to make these criminal become a better people.71
Rehabilitation was particularly important for both victims and abusers. To the victims,
rehabilitation would help them lessen their burden, recover them from their psychological
trauma and lessen losses caused by the case. If child victims of online sexual abuse were not
rehabilitated, they would experience the trauma for life and this might be harmful to their
mental development.
Elvi Hendrani, Assistant Deputy of Child Sexual Abuse of Ministry of Women’s Empowerment
and Child Protection, expressed her views of victims of online sexual abuse:
“Every child (anyone under the age of eighteen) who is involved in sexual activity
with and without force is a victim. That is the views of Ministry of Women’s
Empowerment and Child Protection. Children are victims of poor education, bad
neighborhood, child labeling (as a naughty child). There are many schools which
victimize children who are victims of sexual abuse.”
Victims often faced a complex problem. This was because the abuse had caused not only
physical impacts but also psychological impacts. Furthermore, they very often received pressure
from their community, family, school, etc. In some cases, they could not be reintegrated into
their family after the rehabilitation because their family could not accept them. Therefore, we
had to find a new family or community for them to enable them to continue their lives.
In addition to the physical and psychological impacts, losses suffered by the victims also need
to be carefully considered. They have a right to financial restitution or compensation. If the
victim is a student, for example, financial support for his or her education needs to be
carefully considered. Rapin Mudiardjo, Director of Advocacy and Policy of ICT Watch, said
that victims would go through a very long process, if their case was reported to police and
71
Herbert L. Packer, The Limits of The Criminal Sanction, (California: Stanford University Press, 1968),
page 54.
Page 47 of 58

sent to court. From financial point of view, victims should not pay for their medical check up
(visum et repertum). In many cases, victims prefered not to take legal steps against the abuser
because they would spend much money and time. Meanwhile, there was no guarantee that
the result would be as they had expected and they were still trauma.72
According to Rapin,
what the victims needed most was proper rehabilitation and outreach.
The point was that every online sexual abuse victim needed rehabilitation so that he or she
would be able to accept himself or herself, would not feel guilty or hold a grudge, receive
physical and psychological recovery services, regain his or her self-confidenceso that he or
she would be able to return to his or her family and community to continue his or her life.
Additionally, it was also necessary to approach victims’ family, school and community to help
their rehabilitation process. This aimed to prevent them from victimization and trauma. It was
hoped that students who were victims of online sexual abuse and got pregnant could return
to their school or move to a more conducive school. Victims could do this easier after giving
birth and getting positive result from their rehabilitation process.
Meanwhile, Kisnu Widagso, a criminologist from Universitas Indonesia, said that in addition to
the victims, online sexual abusers also needed rehabilitation. When they were behind bars,
they needed psychological counseling. When he was visiting a prison, he found that many
sexual abusers did not receive any rehabilitation service in the prison. As we might know, a
paedophile, for example, needed special treatments.73
This was important to prevent
recidivism. Although the abusers had been put in prison for a long time, there was not
guarantee that they received psychological recovery service there. Consequently, they might
be involved in crime again after being released from the prison. Furthermore, if they could not
control their sexual desire.
72
An interview with Edward Dewaruci, a lawyer at SCCC Surabaya, on 29 July 2013
73
Paedophile literally means to love children. However, the term is generally used to describe one of
psychosexual development disorders in which someone has an abnormal erotical desire to a child. A
paedophile usually faces a psychological development problem that makes him or her unable to build a
normal heterosocial and homosocial relation. He or she tends to develop an antisocial personality
which is shown by abnormal sexual and moral developments. In addition, a paedophile has a
combination of regression, fear of impotence as well as the lack of ethics and moral. Therefore, a
paedophile must receive a special rehabilitation program to prevent him or her from becoming a
recidivist. Sawatri Supardi S, Bunga Rampai Kasus Gangguan Psikoseksual, PT. Refika Aditama,
Bandung, 2005, p. 71
Page 48 of 58

THE SCOPE AND MAGNITUDE OF ONLINE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN IN INDONESIA

THE SCOPE AND MAGNITUDE OF ONLINE SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN IN INDONESIA

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