"We are very concerned about this case. The task of Social Affairs Ministry is to ensure rehabilitation of the victims," Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Police have uncovered a case of online prostitution involving underaged children being made to serve homosexuals in a hotel in Cipayung in Puncak area, West Java.

Over the past years, prostitution has slowly but persistently migrated to the online marketplace as a vehicle for advertising the victims of the child sex trade to the world.

A research by End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT) has revealed an alarming trend in sexual exploitation of children in Indonesia.

The research by the NGO showed that in big cities such as Jakarta, Bandung in West Java, and Surabaya in East Java, many children were exploited online by pimps via social media, websites and messaging applications.

In early August 2016, the police detected an online prostitution business in Puncak area where boys were traded to serve homosexual men via the social network Facebook.

Subsequently, the police monitored the Facebook account belonging to AR for several weeks, then, in an undercover operation struck a deal and eventually arrested AR and two other suspects on Wednesday night.

"Undercover police pretended to make a transaction with AR, and he agreed to meet the disguised policemen at a hotel in Cipayung, Puncak, and that was where AR and two other suspects were arrested," the National Police Criminal Investigation Unit Director for Special Economic Crime Brig.Gen Agung Setya said.

In addition, the police also rescued seven victims, six of them under aged boys and one aged 18 years.

Of the six boys between 12 to 15 years of age, five are still students and one is a drop out.

Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa assured that she would give full attention to the cases of forced prostitution online for homosexuals, involving underage children.

"We are very concerned about this case. The task of Social Affairs Ministry is to ensure rehabilitation of the victims," Parawansa remarked at the Police Headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday.

According to her, the boys who are victims in this case, will be counseled and will undergo psychosocial therapy for ameliorate their mental condition.

The victims are still undergoing medical examinations to check lest they have been infected with any disease.

Assaults and incidents of violence, particularly of a sexual nature, against children are quite rampant in this country.

Therefore, the Womens Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry focused on three issues - sexual violence, child marriage and child prostitution - in the country.

According to Women Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Susana Yembise, one out of every four boys experiences physical violence, while one out of every seven girls experiences physical violence, which includes sexual assault.

It was a matter of great concern that 77 percent of boys and 85 percent of girls did not know about the existence of child protection services, she noted.

The public must play a more active role in decreasing child violence, Yembise affirmed while laying emphasis on the importance of preventive efforts in child protection.

Protecting children means preventing them from falling victim to violence, crimes or other kinds of maltreatment.

Nowadays, children are drawn to crime, and therefore, parents in particular and the community in general, must protect them.

In May 2016, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) signed Government Regulation No.1/2016, which was the second amendment to Law No.23/2002 on Child Protection, giving judges enough room to impose heavier punishment on those guilty of raping and murdering children.

The regulation was aimed at dealing with an emergency situation as the number of cases of sexual violence against children were on the rise, President Jokowi had stated at the time.

The decree will regulate the enhanced sentence and additional sentences for such perpetrators, he explained.

"These crimes have undermined the development of children, and have disturbed our sense of peace, security and public order," he pointed out, adding, "We will handle it in an extraordinary way."

The increased sentence includes an additional one third of a sentence for criminal charges, death penalty, life imprisonment, or a jail sentence, with a minimum punishment of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years.

As for additional sentences, these will include revealing the identities of perpetrators, castration by chemical method, and installation of an electronic tracking device.

Children have the right to play, to get education, to be protected, and to receive medical facilities, apart from developing and participating in national development.

There are 87 million children in Indonesia, accounting for 34 percent of the total population of the country, and they are the future of Indonesia, according to Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Puan Maharani.

"Once they attain adulthood, children must have character and master technology in order to win, while competing globally and transforming Indonesia into a developed country," Maharani had remarked some time ago.

Minister Maharani expressed the hope that Indonesian children will always be eager to study, remain devoted to their parents and will love their motherland.

The Indonesian government has made addressing violence against children a priority in its policy agenda. It is also committed to making significant progress in protecting Indonesian children from all forms of violence.

As one of its key measures, Indonesia has adopted the National Strategy to End Violence against Children and the Child Protection National Action Plan, which provides for a comprehensive framework to prevent and respond to incidents of violence.(*)

Reporter: Otniel Tamindael
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016