War on online child porn

THE country has declared an all-out “war” against the sexual exploitation of children online, vowing to prosecute and jail perpetrators amid a threefold surge in online sexual abuse cases involving children.

In a joint press conference on Tuesday, members of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s Cabinet said they would crack down with tougher measures on those behind child pornography material involving Filipino minors.

“We’re declaring a war on this,” said the country’s Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, adding that there would be no hesitation in prosecuting anybody who contributed to the sexual exploitation of children online.

Concerned government agencies, from law enforcement to the information and communications technology ministry, promised to prioritise holding violators accountable for exploiting children online.

Officials have attributed the rise in online child sexual abuse cases to new technologies, lax rules on foreign travellers and pandemic lockdowns.

Latest available data from the Justice Ministry showed online child sexual abuse cases rose to 279,166 during the Covid-19 lockdown in the Philippines from March to May 2020.

That accounted for a whopping 264.6% increase compared with the same period in 2019, when recorded cases were at 76,561.

A 2022 study by Unicef, Interpol, and Ecpat International, a global network of organisations against the sexual exploitation of children, also said that around 20% of Internet users in the Philippines aged between 12 and 17 years old had been sexually abused online.

Social Welfare Secretary Erwin Tulfo said child pornography had been a problem in the Philippines for a long time, but it had often been overshadowed by other issues.

When the pandemic hit, Tulfo said several cash-strapped parents ended up prostituting their own children online and offering them up for sexual exploitation.

“We’re so busy with other problems like the pandemic, war on drugs, terrorism in Mindanao.

“The online sexual abuse of children has been there and it’s a big problem, but it was being neglected. So right now, this administration is keen and very serious on stopping this,” said he added.

It did not help that the Philippines made it easy for foreigners to enter the country, said Nikki Prieto-Teodoro, Marcos Jr’s envoy to Unicef. — The Straits Times/ANN