Beware of Digital Sexual Violence

One of the crucial provisions in the Sexual Violence Law is Article 4, Paragraph 1, which includes digital sexual violence as a type of crime.

In addition to nonphysical and physical sexual harassment, forced contraception, forced sterilization, forced marriage, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and sexual slavery, digital sexual violence is included as a type of sexual violence that threatens the community, particularly women and children.

In the postmodern era, the notion of sexual violence is no longer just about physical act of rape. As information technology (IT) and the internet develop more widely, the actions of perpetrators who disseminate and manipulate electronic records to deceive and blackmail victims are also deemed to be criminal acts that are harmful to society.

In the last few years, we have read news about cases of digital sexual violence more than once or twice. Men who were dumped by their girlfriends because they were often violent, for example, have often sought to maintain an exploitative relationship with their victim by threatening to distribute videos or photographs of them doing immoral acts. Victims who are deceived usually do not have the power to refuse, so they unwillingly submit to sexual slavery under the pretext of love.

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In another case, a perpetrate used persuasion and a personal approach to succeed in deceiving their victims, who were usually young girls or even children and wer asked to pose nude for photos or show their intimate parts video calls. Victims who have been unknowingly recorded by the perpetrators usually can't do anything when the perpetrators blackmail them in exchange for preventing their photos or videos from being shared on social media.

Apart from the cases above, many other cases of digital sexual violence have become increasingly prevalent in society.

In essence, acts of sexual violence should not be thought to occur only in the form of threats of physical rape, but they can also be of other actions that use IT and the internet to deceive victims, so they do not have the power to protect their honor, body or even their future.

Sexual predators in the ‘postmodern’ era

Many kinds of sexual violence have occurred so fare in the postmodern era. The Sexual Violence Law (UU TPKS) includes three things under digital sexual violence.

One is the taking video footage and/or pictures or screenshots with sexual content against the will or without the consent of the subject. This type of sexual violence is probably the most commonplace in our society.

Two is transmitting electronic information and/or electronic documents with sexual content/messages against the recipient's will. Perpetrators who intentionally send pornographic content to victims usually aim to increase their libido or solicit sex that demean and treat victims as if they were objects of self-gratification.

Three is stalking and or tracking people using digital technology for use in electronic information or documents for sexual purposes. In this case, if the victim records and transmits electronic information for the public interest or for self-defense, the victim cannot be punished.

In the digital era, there are indications that digital sexual violence is growing in intensity. In contrast to modern society, most of which stutters in using IT, in the postmodern era, sophisticated use of IT and the perpetrators’ evil intentions are often intertwined, leading to a growing number of victims of digital sexual violence.

In the modern era, it is common for someone to get to know their perpetrator only in cyberspace through various social media platforms, growing familiar with them and often sharing stories, even handing over anything to accidental acquaintances who they know only in cyberspace.

The victims often stop being critical. Instead of trying to find out who their digital friends are on social media, it is often the case that victims are deceived by the perpetrator’s deliberately falsified information and constructed narratives or identities.

Victims who are not ready to adapt to new patterns of change in the digital era tend to be the most vulnerable to being tricked by digital sexual predators.

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Apart from being marked by developments in IT, which can be extraordinarily sophisticated, virtual reality is also emerging nowadays. Virtual reality is a new sociocultural system in which reality itself is fully included, fully entered in a virtual setting, in a fantasy world, in which the display is not only on the screen where the experience is communicated, but become the experience itself (Ritzer & Goodman, 2008).

People who used to interact in real life or face-to-face, can now interact with anyone on the internet without being limited by soceital values and norms, so that among the digital citizens who develop relationships via computer networks, they inevitably also grow up with their distinctive subculture, which differs from the society in which they develop face-to-face social relationships.

In cyberspace, what often happens is the phenomenon of multiple identities. This means that one person can construct different figures or personalities depending on the cultural contexts they present in conversations in cyberspace.

It is not impossible for a high-class criminal to present himself as a wise pious, and humorous person to attract and deceive victims. In other cases, a sexual predator can also construct different character who is patient, smart, an animal lover and various other characteristics to attract the sympathy of the victim.

In cyberspace, the social interactions that sexual predators develop and build are often camouflaged and exaggerated. As Castells (2000) said, the uniqueness of IT lies not in its ability to insert virtual reality into the real world, but in its ability to build real virtuality. In other words, the presence of IT is proven to be able to present an event or entity as an actuality, even though the event or entity itself is not real.

As Piliang stated (2004: 64), people still interact with one another in the era of the information revolution, but now they are no longer in real communities, but in virtual communities.

The internet as a form of global communication and information network offers its own form of community (virtual community), its own form of reality (virtual reality), and its own form of space (cyberspace), as well as gives birth to social consequences that may be unimaginable or would have never happened before.

The development of IT in this context not only presents images and spectacles, but also blurs the boundary between fact and fiction (Borgmann, 1999: 192). For people who are not ready to adapt to the new era, don't be surprised if they become vulnerable victims who are easily deceived by sexual predators who commit acts of digital sexual violence.

Ensuring protection

Digital sexual violence from a legal perspective is a klachtdelic (an act of violence that may lead to legal charges only if the victims file complaint), unless the victim is a child or a disabled person. When the victims are minors or disabled persons, the presence or absence of the victim's will or consent does not eliminate criminal charges against perpetrators who take advantage of the victim's weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

Perpetrators of digital sexual violence can be sentenced to a maximum of four years in prison and/or fined a maximum Rp 200 million. Meanwhile, if digital sexual violence is committed for the purpose of extorting or threatening, coercing, or misleading and deceiving someone to do or not do something, then the maximum punishment increases to six years in prison and/or a maximum fine of Rp 300 million.

Will the threat of severe punishment for perpetrators deter people from committing sexual violence? To prove this point, time will tell.

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The experience so far has proven that in order to prevent digital sexual predators from becoming more widespread, it is not enough to just threaten them with imprisonment or a fine reaching hundreds of millions of rupiah.

Efforts to prevent children and women from becoming victims of digital sexual violence also require critical awareness and support from societal institutions so they are able to carry out early detection and provide safety for potential victims. People who are vulnerable to becoming victims of digital sexual violence no longer need to only hope for luck in their lives and not become victims or targets of sexual predators.

The government, social institutions and all stakeholders need to provide protection as well as empower the community so they are not easily tricked into becoming victims of sexual predators who take advantage of IT and the internet.

The combination of digital literacy, information literacy, and critical literacy is the key, so people do not become victims of digital sexual violence.

ARSIP PRIBADI

Rahma Sugihartati

Rahma Sugihartati, Lecturer of Digital Social Issues, Social Sciences Doctoral Program, Airlangga University

This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswo.