Predators use Facebook to abduct Indonesian girls_美文

Predators use Facebook to abduct Indonesian girls

In the month since the Depok girl was found near a bus terminal on Sept 30, there have been at least seven reports of young girls in Indonesia being abducted by people they met on Facebook. Although no solid data exists, police and aid groups that work on trafficking issues say it seems to be a particularly big problem in the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Websites that track social media say Indonesia has nearly 50 million people signed up for Facebook, making it one of the world's top users after the US. Jakarta was recently named the most active Twitter city by Paris-based social media monitoring company Semiocast. Networking groups such as BlackBerry and Yahoo Messenger are wildly popular on mobile phones.

Many young Indonesians, and their parents, are unaware of the dangers of allowing strangers to see their personal information online. Teenagers frequently post photos and personal details such as their home address, phone number, school and hangouts without using any privacy settings - allowing anyone trolling the net to find them and learn everything about them.

The 27 Facebook-related abductions reported to the commission this year in Indonesia have already exceeded the 18 cases it received in 2011.

The National Task Force Against Human Trafficking said 435 children were trafficked last year, mostly for sexual exploitation.

Many who fight child sex crimes in Indonesia believe the real numbers are much higher. Missing children are often not reported to authorities. Stigma and shame surround sexual abuse in the world's largest Muslim-majority country, and there is a widespread belief that police will do nothing to help.