Confused Where To Report When You Experience Sexual Harassment On Social Media, DPR Explains How To Overcome It

Illustration of a teenager creating content on the social media platform TikTok. (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Sexual harassment to sexual exploitation of women and pornography are often experienced by the general public. Not only in the real world, gender-based violence can also occur in social media or online (KBGO).

Usually, netizens who experience it are confused about how to act and where to complain. Member of the House of Representatives Commission I Christina Aryani explained the steps that KBGO victims could take.

"First, block the culprit's contact. Never hesitate to block someone's contact, because right now there are a lot of bad people out there. We don't know what kind of person we are dealing with," said Christina in the webinar "Protect Digital Space from KBGO ", monitored Thursday 11 August.

The next step, he continued, the victims need to document all things in detail to support reporting and investigation to the authorities.

Then, the victim needs to monitor the situation at hand to find out if he can face it alone or if there is a threat from the perpetrator. Furthermore, he added, victims must also access assistance from trusted individuals, institutions, or institutions.

Christina also mentioned several complaint channels that can be accessed by KBGO victims, including the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (contact: 129), Komnas Perempuan (021-3903963), KBGO Task Force (linktr.ee/taskforcekbgo), Awas KBGO (awaskbgo). .id/services), and LBH APIK (081288822669).

As defined by the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet), KBGO is direct violence against someone based on their sexuality or gender and facilitated by technology.

He explained that an act is classified as KBGO if the perpetrator has a motive to attack the sexuality or gender of the survivor. If not, he continued, then the action is classified as general violence in the digital realm.

He said the criminal penalties for KBGO perpetrators were regulated in Article 14 of the Sexual Violence Act (TPKS) and referred to as electronic-based sexual violence (KSBE). The TPKS Law states that KBGO or KSBE perpetrators can be sentenced to a maximum of four years in prison and a maximum fine of Rp. 200 million.

One form of KBGO is grooming or love scam, where the perpetrator involves feelings by pretending to be romantic and loving the victim with the intention of committing fraud.

Furthermore, sexting, namely KBGO in the form of sending photos of genitals or indecent remarks. Then, revenge porn or the dissemination of intimate content of the victim based on the perpetrator's dislike for the victim's actions. Then there is sextortion, which is the dissemination of intimate content with the aim of extortion.

"The last one is cyber-harassing, which is flooding the victim's account with comments that irritate, threaten, or scare the victim for sexual purposes or desires," he explained.

Regarding the number of complaints about KBGO cases experienced by Indonesian people, Christina referred to Komnas Perempuan data which recorded 1,721 cases in 2021. The most vulnerable groups of victims in the KGBO are women and children, although it is possible that men can also become victims.

Quoting Antara's report, the 2021 National Women's Life Experience Survey (SPHPN) explained that the highest prevalence of KBGO in Indonesia, both during life and in the last year, was in the age group of 15 to 19 years.

Therefore, he appealed to the public to educate their closest people about the dangers of KBGO, including the forms of KBGO that must be watched out for.

"Perhaps, there are friends who are still in this age group, are 19 years old or have a sister at home who is 15 years old or still small. This can be shared so that they know this. It is our duty to inform and raise awareness people closest to us to avoid KBGO," he said.