Candy is the favorite sweet of most children that brings delight. For child sexual offenders, however the word “candy” is a code for a meet up online, which leads to incomparable misery and pain.
The story starts with the Jakarta Police cybercrime unit’s Operation Candy 1 tracking down a Facebook group used to share photos and videos of child pornography among predators. The group’s name was Official Loli Candy’s Group. “Candy” and “loli” mean children in the code language of these predators.
Four admins of the group – three men identified as W, 27; DF, 17 and DS, 24; and a woman SH, 16 – have been arrested. The Official Loli Candy’s Group was set up in September 2016 by W. It has around 7,800 members.
Members of the closed group accessed pornographic images and videos involving both adults and children. In order to be able to join, the admins applied a “give and take” system. New members had to upload pornographic photos and videos in order to provide others with more pornographic materials
Investigators created fake Facebook accountsand requested to be members by fulfilling the requirements. “In order to nab the criminals, we have to work in disguise,” an investigator said.
Jakarta Police special criminal investigation director Sr. Comr. Wahyu Hadiningrat said it was not easy to enter the predator ring. Moreover, we needed to post pornographic photos or videos to be admitted. However, they managed to enter without their ruse being detected.
After being accepted as members, the investigators collected materials from the group as evidence. They befriended the four admins of the Facebook group. The investigators also learned about the codes. SSI, for example, means to flatter.
CP – child porn – is a phrase to label any digital materials containing child pornography. Another code term, JJK, means footprint, and is normally typed in the comment column under a photo or video. It is a request to share the address of the photo and video sources.
The admins also applied rules thathad to be followed if members did not want to be kicked out. It aimed to make Facebook and non-members unable to detect the pornographic materials in the group so that it would not be blocked.
One way was to always include the source of the photos and videos by adding a certain character so that the address could not be clicked. “The link must not appear blue,” the investigator said. It means every link address must be added with certain character so that it could not be clicked.
It seems one member violated the rules and then Facebook closed down the group account.
Facebook’s decision to close the group account on Tuesday (7/3) did not make its founders give up. W created another Facebook account on the same day for a similar purpose. The activities of the previous Facebook account stopped following the closure of the founders’ accounts.
“Since the group was blocked, the investigators found difficulties in tracking data of the group members. It depends on the instrument,” Wahyu Hadiningrat said.
Perpetrators
Jakarta Police cybercrime chief Comr. Joko Handono said W and DF were also child sexual predators while DS and SH were admins of the group. DF had sexually abused six children with some of them being recorded including his niece. “Even, he cannot recall how many children he has abused,” Joko said.
The crackdown started from information about some Facebook groups, which were suspected to contain child pornography. The team then conducted a cyber patrol to check which groups contained child pornography.
The fact is the domestic predators had a network with counterparts overseas. From the child pornography Whatsapp chat groups that the four admins were in, there were 10 international groups and the admins used phone numbers from Peru, Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica and United States. Only one Whatsapp group admin used an Indonesian number.
According to DF, he had enjoyed various pornographic videos for a long time. “I have watched porn videos since I was in Grade IV Elementary School,” said the school dropout.
Eventually, he found himself more attracted to porn videos involving children. “When I was in Grade V Elementary School, I fell victim to sexual abuse. I was too afraid to leave the house for a week,” he said.
Meanwhile, W initially created a Whatsapp group to share pornographic material. But, because Whatsapp limits the number of members, he was urged to create a Facebook group.
“The Facebook group consists of various [pornography] not only children. But many members were attracted to child pornography,” said the porn addict who became interested in child pornography only recently.
His attraction to child pornography grew when he found out that others liked it too.
Meanwhile, DS who worked at a confection workshop and SH, a high school student, said they only joined the activity later. But both of them were unable to give reasons why they did not leave the group.
Punishment not enough
National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian said he hoped that all parties would play a role in protecting children from crime. “We must remove the potential for crimes against children, the future of the nation. Law enforcement is never enough,” he said.
Indonesian Child Protection Commission deputy chairman Susanto appreciated the police for cracking down the syndicate. As a preventive measure, children need to always be accompanied and given proper information about pornography so that they are noteasily duped into becoming the victims of pornography.
“Most importantly, the children should be taught how to use social media moderately for positive purposes,” he said.
The government, according to the Information and Communication Ministry information application director general Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan, continues to deal with and respond to reports of internet abuse.
“In child pornography cases, we will hunt down perpetratorswherever they are,” he added.
(ELD/SON/SAN)
