In December last year, the Department of Justice reported receiving more than 2.8 million tips about online child sexual exploitation throughout 2021, an alarming figure as it is more than double the number of the previous year’s tally at 1.3 million. The DOJ’s Office of Cybercrime started official investigations for 268 cases, a jump from the 73 cases it handled in 2020.
In response, the Philippine representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund, Oyunsiakhan Dendevnorov said it was “imperative that we continue our efforts in safeguarding our children on digital platforms.”
As the internet offered new opportunities in education amid the pandemic, it has sadly also become a platform for threat and sexual abuse among children. The Philippines, which has previously been identified by UNICEF as the “global epicenter of the livestream sexual abuse trade,” needs to employ a whole-of-government approach in the fight against the online sexual abuse of children.
Based on the National Study on Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children in the Philippines, poverty is the main reason why children and families resort to these activities. Perpetrators, usually foreigners, offer older children education or money in exchange for sexual photos or videos. Families, parents or relatives then become the facilitators of these abuses and force the children to undress or perform sexual activities in front of the camera.
UNICEF urged the government and civil society “to synergize and to put children’s rights and protection at the forefront of digital efforts.”
Just because Filipino children have been spending most of their time at home, it doesn’t mean they are protected from abuse and exploitation. Statistics show that this hidden crime continues to prey on children that we assumed were safe in their homes, exploited by their own family members. As the digitalization of the world accelerates because of the pandemic, the safeguards and programs to keep our kids safe from these predators who can be thousands of kilometers away but been able to find and exploit willing accomplices inside Filipino homes that continue to be mired in poverty.
The internet can be faster and more accessible to more Filipinos, but first it has to be safer for the children.*
