MAP Forum

Actress Aurelie Moeremans' memoir, Broken Strings, seems to open our eyes and alert us to the phenomenon of child grooming, which is likely prevalent around us. While there is no data on the number of child grooming cases in Indonesia, the rise in cases of sexual violence against children, especially girls, is one indication that this phenomenon is present.

A concrete example is what Aurelie experienced. She was trapped in a manipulative relationship with a man in his thirties when she was 15 years old. In the introduction to her memoir, Aurelie wrote that the memoir contains a true story about emotional manipulation, coercion, bullying, sexual harassment, and psychological violence that she endured.

What Aurelie described is very typical of child grooming, a relationship that appears to be "loving" from the outside but is actually manipulative and exploitative. This may also be the experience of many victims of sexual violence. The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) found many cases of sexual violence against children in which the perpetrators built trust online before exerting full control over the child, including cases of "mail-order brides" abroad or online prostitution (Kompas.id, January 15, 2026).