PHL cybersex players in cat-and-mouse game with authorities

Despite the tougher measures taken by authorities against cybersex operations in the Philippines, those involved in the activity appear to be playing a cat-and-mouse game with the law.

 

An article on the German site Spiegel Online International said that in Cebu, Cordova councilor Angeles Gairanod noted a lack of deterrents to cybersex, due in part to the slow pace of the courts.

 

Cordova had gained international notoriety as a production site for cybersex, where adults were said to sell their own children before the webcam.

 

Philippine laws penalize cybersex with imprisonment of 15 years to life.

 

The article also narrated how residents circumvented a new ordinance by the mayor of Cordova to combat cybersex by having a person sending money through a remittance service to fill in questionnaires specifying the relationship between a person sending money and the recipient.

 

Under the ordinance, the local money transfer offices must submit a report to the mayor's office every month, listing customers and the amount transferred - in a bid to detect unusually large transfers.

 

Yet, Gairanod said those paid for cybersex "simply go to a branch of (the remittance service) in the next town for their payments."

 

Gairanod had also ordered that all Internet connections be registered - leading to a drop in the number of connections from about 1,000 to only about 100.

 

"But the production of cybersex videos continued on mobile devices, smartphones and iPads, which connect to the Internet using WiFi," the article said.

 

Poverty remains a compelling reason for some residents to continue with the trade, the article pointed out.

 

It noted many of the girls' encounters on the Web begin with hopes that a wealthy man would rescue them from poverty.

 

On the other hand, it cited a study by Terre des Hommes showed that while some men actually go to the Philippines after a few chats, "love has very little to do with it."

 

The article cited at least one website, Filipino Cupid, which allows foreign men to find Filipino women over 18, then chatting with them on Skype before visiting them at home.

 

It also cited cases where several families share a laptop and do "business" at home - or youths can prostitute themselves in booths at Internet cafés.

 

Even in "peso-peso cafés" where there are no attendants, the youths can go online, making cybersex available to anyone.

 

On-cam abuse

 

Yet, Spiegel cited a study by Terre des Hommes indicating the effects of on-camera abuse are "comparable with those of real, physical abuse."

 

It said the group's female psychologists say the girls who engaged in cybersex "suffer from depression, have trouble sleeping and have lost the ability to distinguish between intimacy and distance."

 

"Anyone who spends a few hours with the girls, playing soccer or merely observing them, realizes that they are children who are as shy and unrefined as alley cats," it added.

 

Safehouse

 

In the meantime, the report said some minors who formerly prostituted themselves online are placed in a safe house run by Forge, a group that partners with Terre des Hommes.

 

The girls, one of whom recently marked her 13th birthday, gather in a room and say the rosary daily, so they would feel secure.

 

Some Terre des Hommes employees who visited Forge last year and listened to the girls' stories drew up a virtual 10-year-old girl named "Sweetie," who appeared in chat rooms to draw attention to the new form of child prostitution.

 

After 10 weeks, "Sweetie" received 20,000 chat requests from 71 countries, the report said.

 

Educating children on rights

 

For now, Garainod is turning to education, to make children aware of their rights.

 

The report said third-graders are shown a poster of a family sitting at a table together, and taught what their rights are within the family.

 

While the teachers ask, "How should children feel?" the children reply "Happy." When the teachers ask "What shouldn't a child do?" the pupils reply, "Touch." — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News