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Screenshot of Commissioner for National Commission on Violence Against Women Bahrul Fuad at a seminar as seen from Jakarta on Friday, December 3, 2021. (ANTARA/Putu Indah Savitri/my) - 

Commissioner for National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) Bahrul Fuad believes that increasing digital interaction necessitates people to acquire digital literacy about gender-based cyber violence to protect themselves and others.

"The community and young people are not equipped with a sound understanding of how to protect personal data and themselves from the threat of gender-based cyber violence. This is a concern for us at the commission (Komnas Perempuan)," he stated at an online seminar on sexual violence on Friday.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased public interactions in the cyber world. However, people are not equipped with proper digital literacy regarding gender-based cyber violence, thereby resulting in an increase in such cases.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, in 2019, the commission had recorded 87 cases of gender-based cyber violence. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of reports increased by 300 percent, as the commission had received as many as 383 reports.

Hence, various stakeholders, including the government, must educate the public about digital literacy, particularly gender-based cyber violence, to reduce such incidents in the cyber world, he said.

"We hope that these young people and various parties would work together to make efforts to prevent violence against women during this pandemic in various forms," Fuad remarked.

Fuad also noted that based on their annual records in 2021, as many as 6,480 cases of violence occurred in households, ranking the highest in terms of the number of cases, thereby constituting 79 percent of the total number of reports handled by the anti-violence commission.

The impacts of sexual violence against women ranges from physical to psychological and social impact as well as financial impact.

"Often, these victims of sexual violence lost their economic resources, as they experienced social exclusion," he remarked//ANT