An absolutely disturbing video, possibly showing an instance of child abuse, has gone viral in Indonesia today, prompting a police investigation.
In the video, which police believe to have been taken yesterday morning in the East Java city of Malang (based on the number plates of vehicles in the video), a woman can be seen forcefully pushing a child, believed to be her daughter, out of a car that is pulled over on the side of the road. The girl struggles to get back in the car but the woman continues to push her away to the point that the girl falls face down in the road. The woman eventually lets the girl back in the car and they drive off.
(We are not including the video in this article due to its disturbing nature and to prevent any possibility of the girl’s identity being made public.)
Malang City Police say they have launched an investigation to identify the woman and the girl in the video.
“This incident is truly regrettable. Especially since it happened in a public space, which could bring negative effects on the child,” Malang City Police Spokesperson Ni Made Seruni Marhaeni told Detik today.
“We are trying to identify who filmed the video and who first uploaded it on social media, so we can identify the parent in the video.”
Ni Made added that the police have reason to believe that the girl was indeed the woman’s daughter, and that the mother was upset with her daughter.
The police have not yet specified what criminal charges, if any, the woman could face.
