People who respect and care for the well-being of children should be highly concerned about protecting them from the damage inflicted by online child sexual abuse. The internet, social media platforms and telecommunications corporations (telcos) have equal responsibility in protecting children. But in this age of “the dead conscience,” most have no interest in safeguarding children on the internet.
Republic Act 11930, or the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (Osaec) Act — which was passed in July 2022 — mandates internet service providers (ISPs) to install artificial intelligence-powered blocking software, but they don’t. The recent convictions of pedophiles in France and Switzerland for abusing Filipino children over the internet are an indication of this failure. These foreigners paid the relatives of the Filipino children to sexually abuse them while videotaping the act and livestreaming the images on a mobile phone connected to the internet. This internet connection is provided by local ISPs, like major telcos PLDT, Globe and Dito.
The foreign pedophiles paid large sums of money for each show. They did it for months, if not years, with impunity, undetected by the ISPs. This is evidence that the ISPs are not obeying RA 11930 and are unwilling to block such shocking content. Those convicted are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Thousands more pedophiles continue to commit similar crimes, damaging their underage victims for life. Only foreign police agencies informed the Philippine authorities of these heinous crimes against Filipino children.
Despite RA 11930, cybercrimes continue daily, most of them undetected. Children communicate nowadays directly with the wider world through the ISPs, without their parents knowing who they are in contact with. It can be a nightmare for loving parents and dangerous for children with access to a smartphone. Social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, offer a totally new ability to communicate online and connect with others. Never in world history has such an ability been available to children, and many as young as 6 years old can use a smartphone and access social media.
What they will see and experience online can be educational but, more likely under peer group pressure, will visit sites with harmful content. Still, pictures and videos promoting crimes and inducing young people to engage in self-harm or exposing their naked bodies pose the greatest dangers. This free and easy access to platforms where a lonely or curious child can type or ask a question like: “I am 14, will you be my friend?” Then, a swarm of sexual predators, traffickers and child groomers and abusers will respond, each looking to catch innocent children in their net of evil practices.
Many children, especially girls, have been influenced by what they see online and fooled into exposing themselves to a “boyfriend,” and then being victimized by extortionists who demand money in order not to post the images to friends or parents. Some even commit suicide.
One victim of human trafficking who was contacted and seduced over the internet is Angie. She was only 15 when she was mesmerized by what she saw and heard on her mobile phone from human traffickers about the big money she can earn by working in a sex bar. She wanted to help her impoverished family. Unknown to her parents and influenced by her peers and the smart talk of human traffickers online, she fell victim to trafficking and sexual exploitation. Angie and a friend were rescued on Oct. 10, 2023, and immediately referred to the Preda Foundation’s Victoria Home for Girls for protection. She is recovering, being empowered by Preda’s emotional release therapy, and will testify against her traffickers.
Australia is the only country in the world so far to pass legislation banning those 16 and younger from accessing social media. Passed in November 2024 with public approval at 77 percent, this law will take effect next November. Social media companies will have to find ways to prove that the person signing in to their platform is an adult or minor; how they can prove that is the challenge. Failure to implement the law could cost them as much as $32 million in fines.
In the Philippines, there is no talk or interest in controlling the ISPs. The rule of law applies only when people want it to be enforced when it is in their interest to do so. These ISPs are too close to politicians and have resisted implementing existing legislation. As a result, the Philippines has been dubbed the world’s hub of online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
As I said before, the shock and trauma of child sexual abuse caused by the proliferation of sexual imagery and content on social media platforms that ISPs neglect to control last a lifetime. Again, hundreds of thousands of children, some as young as three, are traumatized by the sexual abuse they experienced for live sex shows online, and teenagers being recorded, and images of their abuse being distributed around the world through the so-called dark web for pedophiles’ satisfaction.
The challenge for all who respect children, human rights and dignity is to speak out and awaken the conscience of members of society — parents, teachers, church leaders and government officials, among others — and persuade them to put their selfish interests aside and prevent children from being trafficked and abuse, heal those victimized, and help them attain justice and a happier life.
END.
This column was first published in The Sunday Times (www.manilatimes.net) on February 23, 2025. Print, digital, and online republication of this column without the written consent of the author and of The Manila Times is strictly forbidden.
