A series of chilling images reveal the truth behind a Filipino cyber-sex den where girls as young as 11 are lined up for paedophiles to hand-pick who they want to see abused on webcam.
The girls are forced to smile while being raped on camera as predators tell abusers what to do with them.
The most desperate then make the journey to dirty slums in the Philippines to carry out real-life sexual abuse on the girls.
Predators pay between £6 and £30 for the girls, who are as young as one. The child is paid around £1.50.
The investigation
The shocking cyber-sex den was exposed in an undercover investigation by Belgian journalist Peter Bridge, whose name has been changed to protect his identity.
Posing as a paedophile, he gained the trust of ringleaders and got invited into the sex dens.
He started investigating online child sex abuse in the country two years ago for the documentary, Children of the Cam.
With the help of the Women and Children Protection Centre of the Philippine National Police and US NGO the International Justice Mission, Bridge was able to piece together the sickening trade of child abuse.
Inside the den
Explaining his first visit to the den, Bridge revealed how he was taken to a house in Illigan City, where he met with a group of girls.
He said: ‘They gave me a selection of girls to choose from, between the ages of 11 and 17.
‘I could choose any girls I wanted. I told them I was interested in having six girls, two every night – 15 and 17, 11, 13 and then younger. They agreed.’
The girls were then brought to his hotel room, which was rigged with hidden cameras, and for the next few hours, he interviewed them to find out how they were treated.
He explained: ‘Girls as young as 12 work independently recruiting friends. It is contact with the predators that turns them into really educated abusers.
‘They learn how to receive the money, how to do these things unnoticed, how to make contacts. So they are really raised to abuse by the predators.’
The girls come from US, Europe, Australia, Canada and Korea and work for a client list of around 200 people.
Bridge added: ‘Doing this sort of work is traumatising. But for these girls it’s just normal. They have been raised in a sea of abuse. And they don’t know that it is abuse anymore.’
The cruel reality of online sex abuse in the Phillipines
Mass poverty and the rise of cheap high speed internet has made online child sex abuse one of the leading crimes in the Philippines.
Bridge said: ‘The Philippines is the number one country in what is called webcam child sex tourism.
‘And the descent into this sexual hell, as I call it, is spreading. It’s like a virus. It’s not difficult for the suppliers to find children.’
Often girls from poor backgrounds are forced into performing cyber-sex for only a tiny sum of money while some extremely poor families offer up their children for sex.
It is estimated there are over 750,000 paedophiles online at any time looking at child porn or live streaming, according to Interpol and the FBI.
Last year, 139 people from Britain alone were reportedly being investigated for paying to watch Filipino children online.
The sting operation
In November, police raided an apartment in Illigan and rescued 11 girls.
Three men and two women were arrested in the raid where illegal drugs were also discovered.
The suspects, who remain under investigation, were identified as Jeffryl Aque, Lany Buco, Jefford Dominguez, Kissy Pepito, and Cindy Omisol.
How to tackle the problem
Bridge said that trying to shut down the multi-billion dollar trade in online child sex abuse will be an ‘uphill struggle’ because the ‘problem is huge and under reported.’
He added: ‘Law enforcement is not getting a grip on this problem because it is so difficult to find people, predators, who are using live streaming.
‘And the sector is professionalising fast. Without doing what I’ve been doing, you can’t actually find these people.’
But he said he will not back down until he has exposed the paedophiles and ringleaders abusing the innocent children.
