Police Asked For Heavy Law On Grooming Perpetrators At Lumajang Islamic Boarding School

Illustration of child sexual violence (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection hopes that perpetrators of sexual violence against children such as child groundbreaking at the Lumajang Islamic Boarding School (Ponpes), East Java. Investigators can use the weighting of sentences against boarding school caregivers to become perpetrators of cases of alleged sexual violence in child marriage.

Grooming is a process of sexual manipulation of adults towards child-age victims. Nahar believes that in this case, the child groundbreaking process may have been going on for a long time considering the victim's closeness to the alleged perpetrator.

"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 the educational institution does not carry out his responsibility in fulfilling children's rights and providing special protection for children," said Deputy for Child Special Protection at the Ministry of PPPA, Nahar, quoted by ANTARA, Friday 5 July.

Then if it is later proven that he has committed the same crime, according to him, the perpetrator can be sentenced to a heavier sentence, including giving castration. The perpetrator with the initials ME has been named a suspect in the case.

Suspect ME has been detained since Wednesday, July 3. ME is the caretaker of the Hubbun Islamic Boarding School, Prophet Muhammad in Lumajang Regency, East Java.

Meanwhile, the child victim has returned to his family. "The pavilion has been closed by the Lumajang Police because his status is not licensed," said Nahar.

Previously, there was a serial marriage between a 16-year-old female student and the caretaker of the Prophet Muhammad's Hubbun Islamic Boarding School with the initials ME on August 15, 2023. Meanwhile, the parents of the child victim did not know about the occurrence of a serial marriage to their child.

Nahar assessed that the current practice of child groundbreaking is increasingly worrying and if you look at the conversation of the alleged perpetrator and victim, it is clear that the victim is difficult to refuse because the victim previously felt that the perpetrator was a trustworthy person and had a special relationship.

Grooming is a process of sexual manipulation of adults towards child-age victims. Nahar believes that in this case, the child groundbreaking process may have been going on for a long time considering the victim's closeness to the alleged perpetrator.

According to him, rooming in online games is done by way of the perpetrator getting to know the child, buying a 'diamond' or 'gimmick' child provided by online games so that the child's character inside becomes cooler, gives a lot of likes, chats through the chat room in the online game to ask for personal child contact.

"With these treatments, children think that the perpetrator is a special figure because they can understand and understand children, become friends to tell stories and keep secrets. The perpetrators usually use fake accounts with attractive profile photos. If someone asks for personal information such as photos, home addresses, phone numbers, or schools, it could be a sign of danger," added Nahar.