Alert but not afraid: Islamic Boarding School students learn how to protect themselves online
UNICEF's efforts support the Prevention of Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (P-OCSEA) programme
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It is the end of the week and the school yard at the As-Asy’ariyah Islamic Boarding School in Wonosobo, Central Java is typically quiet. Along one of the corridors, faint sounds of chatter and laughter come from one of the classrooms. Inside a small, dimly lit mosque, several boys sit doing afternoon prayer.
The high school has 220 students (santri). More than half of them live in the school’s boarding facility (pesantren) – a popular choice for many students and parents who seek a religion-based education to strengthen their faith in Islam. For live-in students from other cities or islands, the pesantren is their second home during the school year.
Life inside the pesantren comes with a strict set of rules, including regulations that prohibit the use of mobile phones. Students are allowed to access the internet from a computer lab only at scheduled times. In an increasingly connected digital era, students remain curious and use the internet whenever they can.
“Even though we are not allowed to have a cell phone, we can still communicate with our families by borrowing our teachers’ phones. And during school holidays, I can play with my phone at home,” Maulana Arif, age 17, said. A digital native, he had his first interaction with a cell phone and the internet when he was eight.
Another student, Chusvatun Hasanah, age 18, has several social media accounts, including Instagram. “I just like to scroll and see what my friends post, but I am not active myself,” she said. She made this decision because of disturbing messages she has received from strangers. “Some asked for my WhatsApp number, some said they wanted to be my friend and asked for photos. I would just ignore those messages but when they escalated, I blocked them,” she said.
Chusvatun’s experience illustrates the risks children face online in Indonesia, where Internet penetration is high – at least 92 percent of 12–17-year-olds are internet users. UNICEF’s Disrupting Harm study (2022) revealed that half a million children in Indonesia reported being victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse in 2021.
Children reported being blackmailed to engage in sexual activities or ‘sextortion’, having sexual images of them shared without their permission or being coerced to engage in sexual activities through promises of money or gifts.
“At this day and age, children’s lives are inseparable from the internet. They learn new things and even build their social lives online. We can’t stop them from accessing the internet, but we can provide them with knowledge to protect themselves from harm,"
In 2022, the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection and UNICEF launched the Prevention of Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (P-OCSEA) programme, a three-year partnership to provide safe and friendly environments for children online. The programme includes activities to educate and empower children and their caregivers, build evidence to inform policies, advocacy and programming, and strengthen child protection policies, programmes and services.
As part of P-OCSEA, UNICEF is piloting workshops in 10 pesantren in several Central Java and East Java districts to help students protect themselves from online abuse and exploitation. The workshops focus on personal data protection, social media ethics and various types of online violence. They are facilitated by members of the Children’s Forum in Central and East Java, young people between 17 to 21 years old who have been trained through a safe internet module developed by UNICEF and partners. Learn how to keeping yourself and others safe from online child sexual exploitation and abuse through #JagaBareng here.
“With young people as trainers, the students feel as if they are talking to their peers without psychological barriers that would often occur when they talk to adults or older people. Young people are the best messengers for other young people,” said Hening Budiyawati, the Coordinator from UNICEF’s civil society partner in the programme, Yayasan Setara.
At Chusvatun’s pesantren, the students were enthusiastic and engaged in their workshop. Elected as a spokesperson for her small group, Chusvatun said sometimes her friends would come to her for advice because they were bullied or harassed. “I always advised them to speak up about it and now I know that it was sound advice. We shouldn’t stay silent.”
Maulana also shared Chusvatun’s sentiment about the workshop which he said was the first workshop on the subject that he had ever attended. “I have known the internet for a long time, but it was the first time I ever heard of such things as sextortion or grooming. I am worried but I am glad that I learned something today to protect myself from the dark side of the internet,” he said.
How You Can Help?
Thanks to contributions from generous donors as well as partners' support and collaboration with stakeholders, UNICEF is able to work with local governments and institutions to facilitate training and develop platforms to equip young people to fight against child exploitation and abuse in the midst of the digital era.
However, there are still millions of other children and adolescents in Indonesia who need to be reached. For that, we need your support.
If you want to get involved in protecting our children through programme like this, you can donate to UNICEF. We would really appreciate it.
