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Safe Internet is a broad term, but often refers to online privacy, security and, in Indonesia, a prohibition of sexually explicit material. More than a decade ago, the European Commission initiated the Safer Internet Program, promoting safe and responsible online activity among young users in Europe.

In 2009, the commission introduced a variation of the program called Safer Internet Day to assist non-European countries wishing to take part in the program.

This year the Indonesian government marked Safer Internet Day with a seminar at Hotel Pullman in Central Jakarta on Monday.

Communication Minister Tifatul Sembiring opened the seminar by announcing that his ministry blocked some 983,000 pornographic images.

But despite the minister’s effort to ban pornography, Donny Budhi Utoyo, the founder of ICT Watch, said that there are several other issues involved in making the Internet safer for all Indonesians.

“Porn sites are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Donny, who was also a speaker at the seminar. “The main issues concerning safer Internet use in Indonesia also include security and privacy.”

For Donny, who has traveled all around Indonesia to promote media literacy, security means anything that is related to online business and transactions, while he stresses that privacy should be of concern to every Internet user.

According to Donny, there is a large disparity between Internet users in big cities and in rural areas, and ICT Watch is trying to educate all people to be savvy online.

In big cities, people generally know how to surf the Internet, but are not familiar with how to protect their privacy.

“Both [rural and urban users] require a different approach, but then again, in promoting safety, there’s a similar context that we should consider,” Donny said.

Andi Ramdahani and Muhammad Iqbal, who both go to a public high school in Central Jakarta, said the Internet is a place to search for information and to watch martial arts, their shared hobby.

On the other hand, Syafa Erwina, a student at State Islamic High School in South Jakarta, said she normally uses the Internet to help her with her school work and to watch videos of her favorite Korean musicians on YouTube.

All three students are registered on Facebook and Twitter, but don’t use them frequently. For these young people, their biggest fear is that their accounts might be hacked.

“I once got my e-mail hacked, but then I asked my uncle, who is good at IT, to fix it,” Andi said.

If their accounts were hacked, however, Andi and Iqbal acknowledged they would not know what to do (beyond asking their uncle). The computer teacher at Syafa’s school, Elis Hermawati, said that students in the 11th grade take one computer course per semester.

The topics, which follow guidelines set by the Ministry of Education, are strictly limited to technical matters, such as setting up a blog or e-mail, and do not cover ethics or privacy concerning Internet browsing.

Donny said most children and teenagers are afraid of getting hacked only because it will prevent them from using their e-mail or social networking. They should have bigger worries, he said.

“They are less concerned about private data that they have posted online,” Donny said. “Most students are reluctant to give away a copy of their student ID, but they are willing to post lots of personal information on Facebook and Twitter.”

As the number of Internet users in Indonesia explodes — skyrocketing from fewer than one million users in 2000 to about 50 million users today ­— Indonesian children and teenagers are far more exposed online.

Donny said it would be very easy for a criminal to kidnap a child just by researching what he or she posts on social networking Web sites like Facebook, Twitter and the location-based service Foursquare.

“They do not worry about posting family pictures, and they check into [Foursquare] when they are home, so it’s easy to find the location of their home,” Donny said.

ICT’s programs include school and parent-teacher workshops designed to raise awareness about privacy issues.

Although there are restrictions limiting registration on many popular social networking Web sites for those under the age of 13, Desi Hartanto, a mother of two sons, aged 12 and 10, said she still lets her sons to use these sites.

“Because it’s how they communicate with their friends, so I must check on them and how they interact regularly,” said Desi, even though she is aware that her children are violating the terms of agreement on Web sites like Facebook.

“Who said that a housewife does not have anything to do? Keeping an eye on our children is a full-time job!”

She decided to “friend” her sons on Facebook to closely track what they are doing. If they stumble into violent or pornographic material, Desi usually discusses it at home.

If she scolded her children in a public forum like Twitter or Facebook, her sons could easily create a new account, a trend Desi knows is growing among young social network users. She said one of her son’s friends has 10 Facebook accounts simply because he is reluctant to “unfriend” anybody.

“Never, ever snap at your children on their Twitter or Facebook walls,” she said. “Once they feel uncomfortable, or think that you are not on their side, they won’t tell you anything.”

Desi said her husband works for a digital mapping company, and is therefore often online. In fact, everyone in the family has a Facebook account and a blog on WordPress.

Desi herself only started blogging in 2008, but her food blog has opened many doors for her, including a book publication and public speaking appearances.

These types of benefits are what she wants to share with her sons. She even gives a bonus of Rp 5,000 (55 cents) to her children for every blog post they write.

“I worry that students these days don’t have enough chances to write, because they mostly work on group projects or question-and-answer sheets from school,” she said.

While privacy tends to be an individual Internet safety issue, security is an economic concern. Online vendors say security is the main obstacle to growing their online businesses. Arief Taufik from ICT Watch said most victims of online transactions are reluctant to report their cases.

To address these problems, Achmad Zaky, the founder of the e-commerce Web site bukalapak.com, initiated a social project to encourage people to report their problems. He opened stoppenipuan.com, where users can post grievances from dealing with online vendors.

The Web site has a “blacklist” directory, where they can add to a list of suspect Web sites, phone numbers and bank accounts.

Zaky believes that organized criminals are behind much of the fraudulent activity. Last year, after the Web site had been online nearly a year, he received a threat from an online vendor saying he would come and find him.

“He never actually came to our office, but to have someone threaten you for speaking out against online fraud highlights the lack of security in online transactions,” he said.

Arief added that the public must end the stigma toward victims of online crime. In one of his workshops, a victim said she had transferred Rp 20,000 to an online vendor, but never received the item she paid for.

“She was going to report it, but her friends told her she shouldn’t because it was just Rp 20,000,” he said.

“Some victims may be too lazy to report crimes, but never discourage people from reporting just because it involves a small amount of money.” Shame should not be a barrier to improved security, Arief said.

“We can always quietly say to ourselves, ‘How can people be that stupid and fall for online scams?’ But if the case is never reported, we won’t ever be able to solve the problem.”