PARADIPLOMASI PEMERINTAH KOTA SURABAYA DENGAN UNICEF DALAM UPAYA PENANGANAN ONLINE CHILD SEXUAL EXPLOITATION AND ABUSE (OCSEA)

This thesis is entitled Paradiplomacy of the Surabaya City Government with UNICEF in Efforts to Address Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (OCSEA). The rapid development of digital technology has given rise to a serious threat against children in the form of OCSEA, which refers to the sexual exploitation and abuse of children carried out through digital platforms. As Indonesia’s second largest metropolitan city with a high rate of internet penetration, Surabaya faces a fluctuating dynamic of OCSEA cases, peaking at 154 cases in 2022. The cross-border complexity of this issue has prompted the Surabaya City Government to establish cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). This study employs a descriptive methodology with a qualitative approach, aiming to analyze the practice of paradiplomacy between the Surabaya City Government and UNICEF in addressing OCSEA during the 2021-2025 period. The use of paradiplomacy theory by Kuznetsov and Tavares assists in obtaining the results of this study, where Surabaya’s paradiplomacy practice is realized through three main strategies: capacity building, institutional strengthening, and community-based prevention. Cooperation with UNICEF has contributed technical support, knowledge transfer, and the adaptation of international practices into local policies. This practice reflects a functional and bottom-up form of paradiplomacy, in which local governments utilize international partnerships as a pragmatic instrument to strengthen the child protection system in the digital space.