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Children warned about online sexual exploitation
Agustin Aryani, a student of SMK 28 vocational school in Jakarta, seemed to be paying very close attention to what a panel of speakers said during an event called “Internet Safety for Children”
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span>Agustin Aryani, a student of SMK 28 vocational school in Jakarta, seemed to be paying very close attention to what a panel of speakers said during an event called “Internet Safety for Children”. She sometimes jotted down a note in a small memo pad placed on her lap while learning about “online grooming”, “sexting”, “sextortion” and many other concepts.
Later, after attending the 30-minute discussion session led by Ahmad Sofian, the coordinator of Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) Indonesia, the 17-year-old Agustin told The Jakarta Post that she learned a lot about online sexual exploitation from the session.
“I’d be more cautious when it comes to using the internet in the future as to avoid the potential danger of online sexual exploitation,” said the girl, who had been using the internet since she was 12, yet without getting sufficient knowledge of the dangers of internet predators from her parents and teachers.
Agustin was among hundreds of secondary school students from across the capital who attended the event held by the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry in collaboration with ECPAT and parental control app Kakatu on Thursday.
The ministry was aware that online sexual exploitation was a huge threat to more than 40 million Indonesian children who are using the internet nowadays.
Interpol reportedly identified 25,000 activities relating child pornography online taking place every single day, the ministry said in a statement, adding that ECPAT recorded 150 cases involving the sexual exploitation of children in Indonesia last year.
The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI), meanwhile, revealed previously that at least 116 children had fallen victim to online sexual crime last year, while 134 children became the victims of child pornography in the same period.
Online sexual exploitation, based on Ahmad’s presentation from ECPAT, was usually conducted in several stages. It started with "online grooming", building a relationship with children via messaging apps like WhatsApp and Line so as to later abuse them sexually by luring them to "sext", that is, engage in sexually explicit conversation.
The sexting usually involved children sending their sexual images or videos of themselves to the adults, who would in turn later send the material to other parties for commercial purposes — making the children victims of child pornography. The perpetrators sometimes used the images and video to extort their victims, otherwise known as "sextortion".
“The internet can be used for good, but you should know that there are some people who benefit from the internet by committing crimes, including sexually exploiting children,” Ahmad said, addressing hundreds of students in white-and-gray uniforms.
He warned the children to be careful when sending anything online as once the material was spread “through the sky”, it was hard to eliminate it once and for all.
A 15-year-old student of the SMK 28 Oktober vocational school in Jakarta, Aurelia, promised herself that she would henceforth be more careful in making acquaintances online.
