27 Abril 2024, Sabado
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supports International Autism Day, April 1-8, 2024
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Online child sex abuse stopped
By J.Lo
“When we gave Marcos operational details of crime, he really said, ‘I will leave behind many legacies in the Philippines but if I have to choose just one legacy… after this administration, this would be it,’” Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Secretary Jose Dominic Clavano IV said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants elimination of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children to be his legacy as he regards crime, whose youngest victim in the country is three-month-old infant, as “unFilipino,” .
Clavano said Marcos was “visibly distressed, very bothered and clearly stressed” when presented with information about online sexual abuse and exploitation of children and materials used to commit them during meeting in Malacañang.
“Alarming” figures prompted Marcos to issue “very strong” directive to DOJ, Philippine National Police (PNP) and other law enforcement agencies to further intensify efforts against unlawful activities.
“We hope by the end of his term, we will completely phase out this crime because, as he said, it is very unFilipino-like to do this…so let’s go back to our real culture, family…but when it comes to crime like this, you are using your child to rake in small sums… disturbing,” he added.
Clavano described online sexual abuse and exploitation of children as “family-based crime,” with biological parents facilitating abuse of 41 percent of victims and other relatives doing same for another 42 percent of children.
“His directive is to further intensify these efforts, to further look into how we can come up with holistic solution…because this cannot only be done by whole-of-government approach, but by whole-of-nation approach, includes private sector, social media platforms where these crimes usually occur,” he added.
Marcos, Clavano said, has also instructed DOJ to intensify talks with Facebook and to remind social media giant of its obligations under the law.
Study conducted in 2022 by United Nations Children’s Fund, ECPAT International and Interpol indicated 20 percent of internet-using Filipino children aged 12 to 17 or two million children were victimized by online sexual abuse and exploitation.
About 23 to 38 percent of children victims do not tell anyone about harm being done to them.
Crime has been tied to poverty, unsupervised access to internet and online payment channels, capability to speak English and beliefs children are not harmed if activities only involve use of web cameras.
Clavano admitted there are difficulties in quelling crime since it is done within homes of victims. He added 74 percent of cases were perpetrated by those that fall within victim’s circle of trust, including parents and close relatives.
Children from poor families are easy targets of online sexual abuse because crime is a financially lucrative activity, according to DOJ executive director Margarita Magsaysay.
She revealed some victims are ready to show their nude pictures for as low as P200 or P300 and that crime is rampant in Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and Taguig Cities.
According to Clavano, average age of online sexual abuse and exploitation at time of referral or rescue was 11 years old, with less than one year old being youngest.
Victims of crime were predominantly female at 86 percent. Countries with most number of patrons are US, Sweden and Germany.
“Well, usually patrons are older men, from English-speaking and more developed and Western countries…but customers, as noted here, are not necessarily even pedophiles…meaning to say, they don’t have any overt acts in their own countries where they display pedophile tendencies…so, they just enjoy watching them on internet, social media and other platforms,” Clavano said.
PNP Women and Children Protection Center chief BGen. Portia Manalad said local authorities are collaborating with foreign law enforcement agencies through Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children.
“Together, they refer cases when they find on devices, in other countries, when they arrest criminals who have on their devices child sexual abuse and exploitation materials, and then refer to us if there are Asian-looking or Filipino children and we do rescue and arrest of facilitators,” she said.
Manalad added law enforcers are training to use tool being developed overseas to identify child exploitation materials generated by artificial intelligence.
Despite efforts by government to assist and reintegrate children and families affected by crime, there have been instances where former victims become facilitators of illegal activity.
Clavano said there have been 523 convictions against perpetrators of crime since 2009. After anti-online sexual abuse or exploitation of children law was passed in 2022, almost 200 convictions were made.
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