Jakarta Wednesday, 3rd November 2021
World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) is an annual worldwide forum and conference which was established to support the development of information and communication technology. Every year, WSIS holds the WSIS Prizes event to reward Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) related projects from around the world. This year, the WSIS Prizes issued 18 categories of nominations related to ICT and Bullyid Indonesia was one of the nominees in the E-Health category.
Indonesia had 171 million monthly internet users, one of the highest in the world. However, a lot of these avid internet users have experienced some form of cyberbullying and according to the Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection of the Republic of Indonesia, 49% of Indonesian internet users have been a victim of cyberbullying. Bullyid Indonesia’s long-term aims are to assist Sustainable Goals Development (SGD) by reducing intimate partner violence, internet abuse, and workplace harassment, establishing a legal framework to eliminate gender inequality and discrimination, and providing equal access to mental health care. Bullyid Indonesia focused on tackling this issue by creating an affordable on-demand online legal and mental health counselling with an option to remain anonymous. Anonymous reporting allows a victim-based approach that prioritises finding the best solutions for the victim, this approach acknowledges that by permitting the victim to not disclosed their identity it may encourage them to report the incident as they might have less fear of judgement. Furthermore, it conveys the message that finding the solution is more essential than identifying a person. Additionally, Bullyid Indonesia is unique in that it has its own online counselling platform with data encryption, whereas many online counselling services in Indonesia still rely on third-party applications such as WhatsApp or emails that have not been optimised for E-health purposes.