Child sex abuse online seen to intensify amid COVID-19 lockdown, says group

The incidence of livestreams of child sex abuse in the country is expected to intensify as many children stay in their homes during the enhanced community quarantine, according to End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes Philippines (ECPAT).

"The Philippines has been known to be a top source of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) even without the COVID crisis. Since OSEC (Online sexual exploitation of children) is mainly driven by poverty and high, unregulated access to the internet, it is definitely expected to intensify in a time like this," ECPAT Information and Communication Officer Jenna Serrano said in a statement.

The child rights group said they received reports on a number of Twitter accounts selling child sexual abuse materials, and a case of a 14-year-old girl being asked to send nude photos on Instagram, following the Luzon-wide lockdown.

"Children are online all the time and so are child sex offenders who cannot move or travel. They have all the time to groom unsuspecting children, buy CSAM, and abuse children via livestream. Poor families are hungry and have lost whatever source of income they have. Predators would no doubt exploit this situation," Serrano said.

Non-government organization International Justice Mission in the Philippines cited observations by Europol and other authorities that online child sexual exploitation have increased since COVID-19 lockdowns.

ECPAT Philippines cited that the Department of Justice-Office of Cybercrime (OOC) in 2019 received 600,000 tips of child sexual abuse materials in which the victims were Filipino children, which is a 1,000% increase from reports that were received in 2018.

Citing media reports, ECPAT Philippines added that many of the cases happen in NCR, Region III, Region IV-A and Region VII in the last five years and most of the victims are between 12 to 17 years old.

As part of efforts to curb OSEC, the group has pushed for the establishment of an INHOPE Reporting Hotline in the country to allow internet users to easily report child sex abuse materials online. -- BAP, GMA News