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n a move that may curtail the rights of the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, the government says it is considering banning applications widely used by the LGBT community following the police’s claim they have been used by pedophiles to prey on Indonesian children.

The National Police made the claim after discovering that AR, a suspected pimp and pedophile who allegedly sold children for sex, was aggressively using applications to post pornographic pictures of the victims in an attempt to lure male customers.

One of the apps AR used was a mainstream social and dating app called Grindr, which is designed for gays and bisexuals to chat, share photos and meet up. The app makes use of mobile devices’ geolocation to allow users to locate men nearby.

“AR uses Grindr to make it easier to contact victims or customers. We have asked the Communications and Information Ministry to block 18 applications that could potentially be used for this kind of act,” Brig. Gen. Agung Setya, National Police Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) director, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

The police and the ministry declined to name the other 17 applications planned to be blocked. However, the ministry explained that these applications were geared not only toward gay people, but also to others in the LGBT community.

Although supporting the government’s move to crackdown on pedophiles, pro-LGBT activists said there seemed to be an attempt to confuse LGBTs with pedophiles.

“I think the government’s idea to block those applications based on AR’s case is not right. Not all gay people who use Grindr can be generalized as pedophiles,” Teguh Iman of Suara Kita, a pro-LGBT organization, said.

As someone who is familiar with Grindr, Teguh said the app was merely a social application for gay people to talk to each other and create a community.

Besides, Grindr has strict guidelines. It has terms and conditions in which people cannot simply upload naked pictures. Thus, if the police argue that they want to block it because it contains pornography, they also have to justify their terms of pornography, he added.

“In my opinion, pictures of topless men cannot be categorized as pornography. What’s their definition of pornography?” he added.

The government should not tie the LGBT community to acts of violence because it could result in the criminalization of minorities, Arus Pelangi chairperson, Yuli Rustinawati, said.

“I support the government’s attempt to uncover online child prostitution syndicates, which is very worrying. But, I don’t think blocking LGBT-related applications is a solution to this problem,” she said.

She added that pedophiles using Grindr to find their victims could also use applications designed for heterosexual people.

Next week, the Communications and Information Ministry said it would conduct a meeting with the police, the National Commission for Child Protection (KPAI), the Social Affairs Ministry, non-profit organizations and other related stakeholders to discuss the issue.

“We will communicate with all related stakeholders next week. Everything is possible, including blocking those applications because the impact is real,” Noor Hida, the head of the ministry’s sub-directorate for technology and e-business infrastructure said.

Previously, the Police arrested three suspects in an online child prostitution case. AR was arrested during a police raid in a Bogor hotel, West Java. The other suspect, U, acted as a pimp, while E helped AR recruit children.

AR allegedly stalked victims — mostly children aged between 13 to 21 — on social media or through contact one-to-one, then sold them to men for sex at Rp 1.2 million (US$91.20) to Rp. 1.5 million each. In order to smoothen his plan, he used Facebook and other apps to find customers. (win)