Malang mayor tells officials to install MiChat to monitor prostitution

Photo: Pixabay.com
Photo: Pixabay.com

Sometimes it takes a little bit of creativity by authorities to monitor legal violations, and the mayor of East Java’s Malang has come up with a new instruction for city officials: go incognito on MiChat to take a deep dive into online prostitution.

MiChat is a messaging app that has been, fairly or otherwise, associated with online sex work in Indonesia. Malang Mayor Sutiaji said today that with online prostitution reportedly on the rise in the city, all lurah and camat (subdistrict and district heads) are required to download the app to “maximize supervision” in their respective areas because according to him, the monitoring of such vices is one of their responsibilities to maintain order.

“Please install the MiChat app to monitor your areas. Moreover, online prostitution is quite rampant. One of the indicators being 15 people were apprehended recently in the Dinoyo area at a place that was suspected to be an online prostitution or ‘open BO’ spot,” Sutiaji said, referring to booking online, a term widely used for people who offer sex work on social media.

In the past month, Malang City’s Satpol PP (Public Order Agency) raided kost (boarding houses), ruko (rumah toko or shophouses), and guest houses, among others, that were suspected to host online prostitution in the city, during which they reportedly found many underage children forced into sex work.

“Authorities have also summoned the parents or people in charge of those suspected to run the ‘open BO,’ and they were included in the trial for minor crimes [with sentences] in the form of fines, to give a deterrent effect,” Sutiaji said.



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