JAKARTA: Allegations of sexual harassment involving students from various Indonesia universities have sparked public outrage across the country and scrutiny over women’s safety in the digital space.
First, law students from the University of Indonesia (UI) were suspended on Apr 16 after screenshots went viral online chat group conversations containing vulgar remarks, the objectification of women’s bodies, and obscene jokes targeting at least 20 students and seven lecturers.
The university said an internal investigation is underway, in coordination with the government and the police.
The incident sparked a wave of other allegations.
Following the UI case, 16 students from the Mining Student Association at the Bandung Institute of Technology were suspended, after a viral video of their traditional music group Orkes Semi Dangdut performing a song titled “Erika”.
The song plays on the negative stigmas associated with young widows in Indonesian society as potential husband stealers with vulgar lyrics objectifying women’s bodies and depicting sexual relations.
Bogor Agricultural University this week also sanctioned 16 students allegedly involved in a chat group containing conversations that demean women, two years after the incident purportedly happened in 2024.
Posts on X showed them making comments about women’s bodies, with prospective group members even required to rate women considered the most "gacor", a slang term implying sexually attractive or desirable.
Indonesia passed its sexual harassment law – the Sexual Violence Crime Act – in 2022, a decade after the bill was initiated by Indonesia's National Commission on Violence Against Women in 2012.
The law criminalises sexual violence, including electronic-based sexual violence, while focusing on providing victim protection, rehabilitating perpetrators and creating a violence-free environment.
Penalties for electronic-based sexual violence could include a jail term of up to four years and a 200 million rupiah (US$11,591) fine or could be up to six years jail and a 300 million rupiah fine if there is intent to extort, coerce or deceive victims.
The Indonesian Education Monitoring Network (JPPI) recorded 233 cases of violence in educational environments during the first three months of this year, nearly half of which were sexual violence.
According to JPPI, cases in educational environments have been on the rise, from 285 cases in 2023 to 573 cases in 2024 to 641 in 2025.
Amid intensifying public debate, analysts shared with CNA the potential influences behind such behaviours, the psychological impact on victims, and what is needed to drive change to protect women from sexual harassment online.
MALE SEXUAL FANTASIES
At 14, Indonesian Neca, 22, was texting a male schoolmate she liked on Instagram.She shared her account password with another male classmate, hoping he could read their texts and help her come up with things to say. Instead, he impersonated her, sending sexual messages to the boy without her consent.
her account password with another male classmate, hoping he could read their texts and help her come up with things to say. Instead, he impersonated her, sending sexual messages to the boy without her consent.The recent University of Indonesia graduate, who asked to be identified only by her nickname, later cut off her male classmate’s access, but continued receiving sexual messages from the boy she liked.“I told him that I was not comfortable with it. Although he would say sorry, he continued repeating the same behaviour,” Neca told CNA.For nearly three years till she was 17, he sent her messages requesting intimate photos and asked her to engage in sexual activity with him, while often commenting on her body and saying he wanted to kiss her. Although she repeatedly expressed discomfort and turned down his requests to send intimate photos, she eventually felt pressured to send a photo of herself in a tank top without a bra.Screenshots from their conversation circulated around school – though she was unaware how the conversations were leaked – and boys at school started sexualising her in their conversations.Another male classmate also asked her to send photos and videos of herself.“During that period, I cried almost everyday,” she said. “I kept blaming myself for what I did … I once tried to hurt myself because I thought I could move the pain from my chest."
