Online sex offenders beware, cops are watching - Faced with an increasing number of online sex crimes, the Jakarta Police is stepping up its eavesdropping of cyberspace.
Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Baharudin Djafar said the police cyber crimes unit was currently monitoring websites and suspicious accounts on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter around the clock.
“If we see any suspicious content on websites or social networking accounts, we will monitor them constantly and, if a crime occurs, will trace the owners of the accounts and sites,” Baharudin told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Baharudin also said that police officers would visit schools and communities to raise awareness about the hazards of cyberspace. “We want to teach people how to engage in safe and responsible activities online and through social networks,” he said.
Earlier this week, police uncovered a prostitution ring that was set up on Facebook and arrested
the madam for the network of prostitutes.
The alleged madam, a resident of Manggarai, South Jakarta, reportedly convinced her own neighbors to join the prostitution ring.
The suspect allegedly used a Facebook account to offer the girls, between 13 and 16 years of age, as escorts. The cost was Rp 2 million (US$222).
After receiving requests for the escorts, the suspect sent the girls to a rendezvous point to meet their customers, Central Jakarta Police detective chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Yoyon Toni Saputra said.
Yoyon said the police received a lead in the case when a teacher checked the Facebook account of a student, who was one of the prostitutes’ classmates, and saw suspicious activity. The teacher contacted the girl’s father, who filed a report with the police.
The police have also arrested one of the alleged customers, a 50-year-old man, at his apartment in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, during a sting. The suspect was arrested after one of the escorts entered his room.
Concerned with the rise in online sex crimes, parents are beginning to keep an eye on their children’s online activities. One parent said communication was the key to preventing cyber crime.
“My daughter always tells me what she does on Facebook, from adding strangers as ‘friends’ and her list of ‘friends’ to whom she’s falling in love with. I always monitor her online activity in order to prevent her from being conned,” Eva Kusuma Sundari, the mother of a teenager and a legislator, told the Post.
Eva said research had found that a lack of communication between parents and children was often the primary cause of teenagers falling victim to online sex crimes.
She also referred to research that found that increased communication helped prevent unwanted pregnancy in Europe. “A recent study found that teenagers in England have higher rates of unwed pregnancy than their peers in the Netherlands. The research found that English teenagers have less communication with their parents than their peers in the Netherlands,” Eva said.
Children should only be allowed to access the Internet if their parents spoke to them regularly, Eva said. “For me, I don’t have a problem with my daughter having a social networking account as long as we have solid communication.” ( thejakartapost.com )
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