ABSTRACT
@#Introduction: Cases of violence against children in Indonesia are still a complex problem. The high prevalence highlights the importance of understanding effective ways through which parents can provide the best protection for their children. However, many Indonesian parents consider sex education vulgar and inappropriate. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of using the sex education parenting (SETTING) application to improve the level of knowledge about the prevention of sexual violence among children during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: This study was conducted using a quasi-experimental with one group pre-test and post-test design. A total of 91 parents at the Sempor I Health Center, Kebumen Regency, Central Java, Indonesia, selected accidentally participated for 3 months. The instrument used was the parental knowledge questionnaire and the smartphone-based SETTING application which has been confirmed valid and reliable, while data analysis was performed using the Wilcoxon test. Results: The results showed that the majority of parents’ knowledge increased from sufficient (73.6%) to a good level (82.4%) and there were statistically significant improvements in parents’ level of knowledge about the prevention of sexual violence after being given sex education through the SETTING application with p= 0.000 (p<0.05). Conclusion: Sex education with the SETTING smartphone application can effectively increase parents’ knowledge of preventing sexual violence in children. Future investigations are needed to further develop this study in evaluating the effectiveness of SETTING on parental behavior.