T

he increasing trend of reporting cyberbullying, including body shaming, incidents to the police has been met with caution by some, who worry it could create tension within society and lead to a vicious cycle of legal action.

Data from the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) show that increasing numbers of cyberbullying victims are reporting their cases to the police under the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.

There were 22 cyberbullying cases reported in 2013, according to SAFEnet, with the number increasing to 35 in 2014 and jumping to 83 in 2016.

“Those are only the cases that we can find. Not to mention the cases in the regions that we can spotlight,” SAFEnet’s Nabilah Saputri told The Jakarta Post.

“But it’s not good if people are able to easily report people for body shaming. The people they report could report them back, and things will never come to an end,” she said.

Singer Ussy Sulistiawaty reported 10 Instagram users to the police last week for allegedly body shaming her daughter. One of the accused apologized to her, but Ussy said she would not withdraw her police report so it would act as a “deterrent effect” to the alleged bullies.

She said her daughter refused to eat after being bullied.

Ussy’s daughter was just one example.

Beauty vlogger Rahmawati Kekeyi Putri was often bombarded with comments about her appearance, while singer Audy has been the target of fat-shaming comments on social media.

Research has shown how hurtful words can affect a person’s mental health.

Dinda, 27, has dark skin and she gets negative comments, online and offline, from her colleagues. She showed pictures of women who had “beautiful and fair skin” to the Post on her Instagram, saying she wished she had skin like them.

“I’m tired of having this dark complexion, I wish my skin looked like them,” she said on Saturday.

She said her colleagues’ constant cruelty concerning the color of her skin lowered her confidence, with some even making derogatory comments on her social media accounts.

“They said or wrote that I would actually be beautiful if only my skin was fairer. Some said being dark-skinned was the reason I did not have a boyfriend,” Dinda said.

She once got desperate and decided to try a range of skin creams that were advertised as being able to create whiter skin, which caused her to contract a skin infection.

“My mother once planned to report the people who bullied me to the police. But I told her we didn’t need to. That would be too much. Besides, we don’t really understand the legal process,” Dinda said.

Body shaming has also made 26-year-old Hasna, not her real name, not want to go out socializing. She weighs almost 90 kilograms, and receives many cruel comments every time she posts a photo of herself online.

“Some people I don’t even know have even cited an Islamic hadith saying that the wives of the prophet had ideal weights. They try to say that having an ideal body is sunnah [the Prophet’s way]. I feel like I’m a sinner,” Hasna told the Post.

She once threatened one of her bullies with legal action. “I wasn’t serious, actually. I just wanted them to stop body shaming me,” she said.

The phenomenon of body shaming can generally be described as the practice of publicly or privately criticizing someone based upon their physical appearance.

In November, an infographic from the legal consultation website hukumonline.com was circulated on social media, which explained that body shaming could lead to criminal charges. The post received many comments with a number of netizens sharing it as a warning to others.

Hukumonline.com said Article 27 Clause 3 of the ITE Law stipulated that anyone who intentionally and without any right distributed and/or transmitted and/or made any electronic information or document containing insults and/or defamation could be charged with a crime, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

The Jakarta Police have also made a similar statement.

However, Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) legal expert Erasmus Napitupulu said the police should tread carefully about slapping criminal charges on bullies.

Although he said people could use the Criminal Code’s Article 315 on insults, which carries a much lighter punishment than the ITE Law, with a maximum of four months imprisonment, he did not advise that victims report their bullies to the police.

“Such courses of action will create anxiety within society particularly around freedom of expression. People will be afraid to give criticism and express what they feel,” Erasmus said.