Yogyakarta, February 7th 2022─Fisipol UGM’s Center for Digital Society is back with the 26th OPOSIT with the title “Is the Digital Space Safe from Sexual Violence?” on Monday (7/2). The event that was held through @cfds_ugm’s Instagram Live invited Duke from University of Indonesia Criminology and Puke from University of Indonesia Sexuality and Gender Study Center.
Sexual violence is a term which belongs to a bigger concept which is the Online Gender-based Violence. Contained in the Online Gender-Based Violence term is the privacy violation, surveillance, defamation of reputation or credibility, violation which can be complemented by online violation, direct violence and threat, as well as targeted attack towards certain communities.
According to the data provided by the National Minister of Women, there were up to 940 reports of OGBV in 2020 and it is predicted that in 2021 the number will go up due to the pandemic. Up to 67% of the victims are women. However, it does not erase the fact that men can also be a victim of sexual harrasment. However, men usually don’t report the violation because there is a widely accepted view that men are the perpetrators and women are the victims.
Moreover, women usually is on the receiving end of sexual violence because of the culture of patriarchy that is still very strong in Indonesia. “There is actually a culture of patriarchy which creates inequality between men and women. This inequality makes women unable to defend themselves as victims, which is why vulnerability for this group is higher,” Duke said.
Additionally, the existence of anonymity in the internet can increase the incidence of sexual violence in the digital space. This is predicted to affect the lack of digital safe space from sexual violence both for men or women. Therefore, the Sexual Violence Bill is hoped to be legalized soon so that it can become a legal protection for sexual violence victims.
“If we legalize the Sexual Violence Bill, we can use it as the foundation for both women and men to report alleged sexual violators,” Duke said.
Duke’s opinion is valid seeing that even though there are already cyber polices in the internet through the ITE Bill, The Sexual Violence Bill is more urgent because it provides a different perspective such as victim rehabilitation, post-trauma recovery, etc.
“If we focus too much on the ITE Bill, I believe that it will be harder when we want to report. A simple screenshot of the act can be misinterpreted as a form of defamation. So, if we have the Sexual Violence Bill as a legal protection, victims that report can be protected,” Puke said.