Child Rights Network urges gov’t to address online sexual exploitation of children amid quarantine

The Child Rights Network (CRN) on Tuesday urged the government and private sector to improve efforts in putting a stop to the growing number of online sexual exploitation amid the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

In a statement, CRN said that sexual predators are taking advantage of the situation where Filipino families are suffering from the financial impact of the slowed down economic activities during the ECQ.

“Civil society organizations and child rights groups under the banner of CRN have noted a growing number of reports of online sexual exploitation of children during this quarantine period,” it said.

“Some of these reports include Twitter users from the 'alter community' sharing and selling child sexual abuse materials online,” it added.

Due to worsening economic situation, CRN said many parents are challenged to provide for their family's needs due to the massive work stoppage.

“CRN fears that parents can resort to peddling their children to sexual predators online due to the lucrative nature of these activities,” the group said.

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said the Philippines has been one of the top sources of child sexual abuse materials globally with online activities paying as much as P5,000 per broadcast.

This amount is equivalent to almost 10 days’ worth of wages for a minimum wage earner in the country, CRN said.

The group said that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, alarming findings on online sexual exploitation of children have already been reported.

Citing US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, CRN said 600,000 child sexual abuse materials from the Philippines were reported to have been shared and sold online in 2018 alone.

“This marks a 1,300% increase from the previous year,” CRN noted.

According to UNICEF, 1 in 5 Filipino children are vulnerable to this exploitation. Boys are found to be as vulnerable to online sexual exploitation as girls, according to the same study, CRN said.

The alliance also pointed some gaps in child protection framework in the Philippines specifically in ‘systems and structures’ as well as in ‘capabilities and resources.’

CRN said the laws concerning child protection and online abuses have also several gaps that make it difficult to prosecute such cases.

“These gaps include the lack of clearly-defined rules delineating the obligations of social media networks (e.g. Facebook and Twitter), Internet cafes/kiosks or lessors of business establishments, banks, money remittance centers and credit card companies in relation to shutting down online sexual exploitation of children,” it said.

CRN added that the capacity of government authorities to implement related laws needs to be strengthen to ensure that crimes are investigated and perpetrators are punished.

“We call on our national and local governments to immediately address the legal gaps that hinder the prosecution of OSEC cases especially in this time of COVID-19. Stronger social protection measures need to be implemented to assist vulnerable households,” it said.

“Reporting and referral lines should be widely and actively disseminated to empower victims and witnesses to report cases of abuse and exploitation. Social networking sites and Internet Service Providers also need to do their part in shutting down online sexual exploitation of children,” it added. —LDF, GMA News