Education About Grooming Is Important In The Midst Of Increasing Sexual Manipulation Perpetrators

JAKARTA The day after tomorrow the mode of sexual violence is increasingly diverse, including one of them is sex halling. Perpetrators of sex opening usually give lures or deceive victims in order to have complete control in a relationship.

Cases of sexual violence preceded by lure or attempts to persuade, tricking victims are increasingly common. This is common for perpetrators who have power, with victims who are usually minors. However, according to psychologists, now victims of sex groundbreaking are not always minors, but can also happen to adults.

Recently, viral news of Muhammad Erik alias Muhammad Arifin marrying a 16-year-old girl without a guardian because the marriage was unknown to his parents. Erik or Arifin is one of the administrators at the Prophet Muhammad SAW Hubbun Islamic Boarding School in Lumajang, East Java.

The victim who was married admitted that he was lured with Rp300,000 and would be happy. Not only that, the victim is also said to be going to heaven if he is willing to become a siri wife even though the perpetrator already has a legal wife.

The Lumajang Police have named Muhammad Erik as a suspect after being reported to the police by the victim's father, M, on May 14, 2024, while the second marriage will take place on August 15, 2023.

Sex dressing is one of the most rampant modes of sexual violence lately. Citing The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), rooming is when one builds a relationship, trust, and emotional bond with children or adolescents so that they can manipulate, exploit, and commit violence against them.

Anyone can become a starbursting actor, because Roomers do not look at age, gender or race. Teachers, religious leaders, sports coaches can become street vendors, even including the closest family members.

Grooming takes both short-term and long-term time, from week to year, to prey on its targets.

Meanwhile, the psychology lecturer at the State University of Surabaya (UNESA) Nanda Audi, S.Psi. M. Psi explained that the term sex or sexual opening refers to the lure of sexual violence perpetrators to gain trust and control over victims. He said the groundbreaking process was packaged manipulatively in trapping victims, especially those related to sexual activity.

"Usually, the term sex rooming was initially experienced by minors, because they did not understand the dangers of sexual violence, but there were also victims from students," said Nanda, quoted by the UNESA official website.

Perpetrators are more flexible in carrying out their actions since social media has grown rapidly. This was also stated by Nanda. He admitted that the strategy of conducting is often started from social media, especially dating applications. However, it is possible that the perpetrators will also launch their actions through various social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and messaging applications such as Whatsapp.

Through this social media, the perpetrators tried to continue to approach the victim, create a security impression, and defensively direct the victim to a more vulnerable situation.

Simply put, the perpetrators will plan strategies to prepare, build relationships, and manipulate victims with the ultimate goal of sexually exploiting them.

"The perpetrator's strategy is usually through special attention to victims, giving gifts, providing emotional support, and taking advantage of the victim's vulnerability," said Nanda.

Grooming can have a very bad impact on its victims. Not only emotional trauma, victims may also experience deep feelings of guilt, shame, or fear that affect their overall mental health.

Choosing victims who tend to be more vulnerable or lack experience with this kind of situation can increase the traumatic impact on victims.

"Sex dressing in the context of sexual crimes does not only occur physically, it can still involve psychological and digital dimensions," said Nanda.

Until now, it is difficult to see if someone is said to be aggrooming victim, because the signals are not always clearly visible. Especially if the perpetrator's target is children, who may feel that the attitude or persuasion of these perpetrators is considered normal.

Returning to the 16-year-old girl serial marriage case with the board of the Islamic boarding school in Lumajang. Deputy for Child Special Protection at the Ministry of PPPA, Nahar said that the current child rooming practice is increasingly worrying. If you look at the conversation between the alleged perpetrator and the victim, it can be seen that the victim has difficulty refusing because he feels that the perpetrator is a trustworthy person and has a special relationship.

Nahar hopes that investigators can use the weighting of sentences against boarding school caregivers to become perpetrators of cases of alleged sexual violence in child marriage.

"We hope that investigators can use Article 81 of Law Number 17/2016 with a penalty weight because the alleged perpetrator as the caretaker of an educational institution does not carry out his responsibilities in fulfilling children's rights and providing special protection for children," said Nahar, quoted by ANTARA.

The Head of Sub-Directorate for the Prevention and Handling of UNESA Sexual Violence, Iman Pasu Marganda Hadiarto Purba, SH, MH, said that from the aspect of the law, Ex-Grooming is not written directly in the law, but is still part of sexual violence.

"If we refer to the PPKS Law on acts of sexual violence, it is stated that sexual violence is demeaning, harassing and not justified in any form," he explained.

As a precautionary measure, sex opening needs to be a common concern and be part of the educational content to raise awareness of risks such as excessive attention, establishing emotional relationships that are too fast, and inappropriate sexual element recognition.

"Keep your limits when interacting with new people, especially not providing personal information that is too detailed and avoid sharing personal information that is too detailed publicly," said Iman ending.