Author: Vassilia Orfanou, PhD, Post Doc
Headline Diplomat eMagazine
Most recently, the LUDCI.eu researchers and journalists brought to my attention alarming statistics that currently deplete the Philippines, a poverty stricken nation, where about 19.99 million people live in abject poverty; people live in extremely overcrowded and compact sardine boxes, and push their own kids to unbelievable circumstances.
In fact, it is beyond a shadow of a doubt that physical and sexual abuse of the Filipino kids has become the norm with no way out. At this time, the Philippines is ranked as the “world’s center of child sex abuse material production,” with about 80 percent of Filipino children remaining defenceless against internet sexual abuse and exploitation. The actual horror is that these children were first used and abused by their own parents.
Online sexual exploitation and abuse is not just a dark web reality. It is an emergent threat to today’s civil society. It usually relates to a number of sexually exploitative and harmful behaviors using the internet. Such are live streaming of sexual abuse, online grooming, online sexual coercion, child sexual material, online sexual extortion, sex trafficking, and image-based sexual abuse.
According to UNICEF, this gross immorality has recently continued to permeate entire Filipino societies and institutions at an alarming rate. Women and girls are particularly abused. Sexual offenders, including their own parents, exploit the advantage of gender, sex, and structural discrimination inherent in our society and economic inequalities to subject them to sexual abuse and exploitation. The rise in the use of technology has unfortunately made it much easier to groom, recruit, and sexually exploit these children in the Philippines with gross impunity.
In most cases, the predators carry out immoral acts using social media and online gaming platforms targeting potential victims given that such platforms offer anonymity and operate under limited laws and regulations.
UNICEF has dubbed the Philippines as the “global heartland of live-stream sexual abuse commerce,” with many victims being minors. So, my question is what on earth are we doing about this? What do we protect the World’s Children?
Adult predators and out-of-school children spent more time at home and online during any time of the day, driving an increase in internet child sex abuse all over the world.
The pandemic’s impact on child sex abuse in the Philippines
This extreme fragility was further heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought about the restriction of every member of the family into their homes due to total closure for about two years, with public gatherings and movements completely restricted.
As the world collectively wrestled with the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of lockdowns forced victims of online sexual abuse to remain indoors for long periods with their offenders and abusers, increasing the incidences of domestic violence, sexual and physical abuse, and exploitation.
UNICEF reports severe occurrences in the country, in particular showing the ugly truth of an increased percentage of 280 percent in 2020 after one of the world’s longest pandemic lockdowns kept susceptible children at home.
According to the Philippines’ Office of Cybercrime, approximately 1.3 million tipline reports of child sex content online were received in 2020, the first year of the coronavirus epidemic. The figure was three times that of 2019. Financial watchdogs have also reported a quick increase in suspicious transactions tied to online child sexual exploitation cases.
Most recently, the BBC cited a recent study about child sex abuse surging in the Philippines during the pandemic. According to the study, Philippine children were imprisoned indoors with people who had the time, motivation, and incentives to assault them sexually and videotape the crimes and sell the footage online. Those people were frequently the children’s parents. So, in fact, we are talking that any parent out there that may have indeed brought a child in this World, could be a potential offender? Who gives the right to maltreat a child? So, what are the rest of the parents doing? Are we going to let this be?
During my journalistic career – another hat that I usually wear in specific cases to drive impact – it is more than noticeable that today what we have at hand is a multi-billion-dollar industry exploiting children that has exploded in enormous numbers with nothing really preventing its growth. No laws. No actions. No funding. No support. It goes on and on growing and growing each day.
Fedalyn Marie Baldo, director of a shelter for abused children in Manila, confirms to BBC that child sexual abuse and exploitation have severely developed into a billion-dollar industry, with the Philippines serving as the global production hub. “Grinding poverty, high-speed Internet connection, and the ability to take instructions in English have kept it all going,” she stated. Then the epidemic struck, closing Filipino homes and schools for more than two years, trapping “vulnerable children at home with cash-strapped parents struggling to gather funds.” According to UNICEF, approximately one in every five Filipino children is in danger of exploitation.
According to another study, funded by the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children and produced by Expat International, UNICEF, and Interpol, one in every five minors aged 12 to 17 in the Philippines may be susceptible to severe online sexual abuse, while using the internet in 2020.
In a study of 950 children, researchers discovered that one-fifth had experienced online sexual abuse in the previous year, such as being pressured with money or blackmailed to engage in sexual acts or having intimate photographs broadcast without their consent. The poll was carried out between January and April of 2021. Now, putting numbers down and scaling these to the country’s population, it could mean that 2 million children in the Philippines have been subjected to child sexual abuse and exploitation in one year!
The severe effect that such a reality has on Women and Girls in the Philippines
Online sexual abuse poses a lot of negative impacts on women and girls. With other forms of trauma, online sexual abuse and exploitation of children can have several lasting adverse effects on the mental health and well-being of the survivors. In addition, this could also affect the ability of women and girls to engage in safe, common, and necessary online activities such as learning and community participation. In fact, it could further limit their presence and adoption of the internet for better advantages.
How to End Sexual Abuse in the Philippines
Although, there may be several international laws and standards that provide the opportunity for the government to address issues of sexual abuse and exploitation as well as gender-based violence, there is no single international binding instrument that specifically addresses online sexual exploitation and abuse. This is because national and international instruments have not kept pace with the complex nature of crime and the ever-changing digital landscape. This is exactly what we would need to work on further!
With the law that raises the age of consent, it seems that those who support more excellent protection for children may have prevailed. However, the actual challenge that lies ahead is in the implementation of the new law. According to the author of the Bill, Senator Hontiveros, “Any law that we may pass especially for the protection of children is only as good as its enforcement.”
The justice system in the Philippines is popularly known for the slow implementation of laws and regulations. No wonder! With few courts and numerous cases, it could take years and even decades for laws to be enforced and implemented. In fact, backlogs of laws and policies are yet to be attended to, which was dramatically worsened by the pandemic, especially the war on drugs. Emmanuel Drewery, a famous social worker for an Olongapo City-based foundation, also says that government hotlines to report sexual abuses are frequently unmanned, leaving victims unable to lodge their complaints on time. What do you think this would mean when discussing child trauma inflicted as a result of sexual abuse to sexual abuse that is simply packed in sardine boxes without anyone doing anything about it?
Efforts Made to Keep Filipino Children Safe From Child Sex Abuse
According to several BBC sources, only international measures will bring down the online child predator shop that has flourished during the pandemic. Many successful cases in the Philippines were made possible by trips from outside the country.
Save the Children Philippines (SaferKidsPH) collaborate with The Asia Foundation and UNICEF to minimize online child sex abuse in the Philippines. SaferKidsPH collaborates with children and families, the Philippine government, civic society, and the commercial sector to keep children safe and secure online.
In addition, the Philippine government has taken a serious stance against online child sexual exploitation. With PICACC – a collaborative effort by law enforcement across the Philippines and other countries an important effort is put in place to combat child exploitation. Within two years of its establishment, PICACC rescued 373 victims of online sexual exploitation and arrested 84 criminals.
President Bongbong Marcos has also launched an “all-out war” on child sexual abuse and the resulting industry that has grown due to that. Still and thus far, the Philippines is losing the war. What do we do to back him up in this War, my question remains? How do we stand together and fight for the Philippines babies during this time and beyond? What can we possibly do to help?
Conclusion
The prevalence of child sexual abuse has increased in the Philippines with the introduction of the COVID-19 lockdown. As a result, Filipino children are increasingly becoming victims of conditions detrimental to their growth and well-being.
By all means, online sexual abuse in the Philippines should be eradicated as it often leads to adverse outcomes for victims, frequently over a long period. The public, church leaders, government officials, and international and non-governmental organizations must all see it as a responsibility to work together to ensure that the current laws and new laws are in fact implemented to protect children against sexual with the victims saved and protected.
Furthermore, educating parents and caregivers on how to spot signs of online sexual exploitation and abuse and deal with online safety for children is essential. It is equally necessary to establish laws and policies to clarify the roles, responsibilities, and accountability of digital service providers and platforms in preventing, detecting, and reporting online sexual abuse on their platforms. These are indeed important steps in the right direction. Also, the usual culture of silence and cover-ups for cases of sexual abuse against children victims must be immediately broken, and stakeholders must rise to defend the victims’ right to justice aggressively.
If you discover or suspect sexual abuse, do not conceal it. Report to the appropriate authorities immediately. You can either call the police or reach out to them via social media platforms.
An all-encompassing focus on online child abuse is required to have a meaningful impact. Any country should take the following steps:
- Implement alternative online child sexual abuse detection techniques
- Strengthen parental support and financial assistance for vulnerable families
- Improve case detection and referral services
- Develop more international frameworks to deal with cross-border cybercrime properly to tackle online sexual abuse cases, global pandemic or not.
This news item has offered insight into the current situation of online child sexual abuse in the Philippines, where these incidences have increased significantly during the COVID-19 epidemic.
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References:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-63658818
https://osec.ijm.org/news-and-insights/news-updates/picacc-third-anniversary/
https://nypost.com/2020/05/21/study-philippines-a-global-hot-spot-for-online-child-abuse/
https://www.ijm.org/vawc/blog/unsafe-in-lockdown-double-threats-to-children-during-covid-19-crisis
Photo: Featured photo – cottonbro studio, Pexels
