Internet makes child porn big business in Cebu

In what could be the most horrifying Internet job in the land, if not the entire planet, children perform sex acts in front of a webcam for as little as P300 a day. 

 

Cebu has been identified by non-governmental organizations as a hotbed of this kind of cyber child pornography. It is also where its opponents have focused their rage. 

 

Wednesday saw the commemoration of the Cebu-wide Day to End Child Pornography, which was also the closing event of a two-week long campaign to raise awareness and gather support against child pornography.

 

With its theme of “Sugbo! Lihok Batok sa Pornograpiya!” (Cebu! Move Against Pornography), four NGOs spearheaded the event, designating August 1 as the Day to End Child Pornography. 

 

The celebration commenced with officials laying colorful rubber arrow tiles on the sidewalks from Fuente Osmena to Plaza Independencia. The tiles spelled out words like ‘School’, ‘Care’ and ‘Happiness’--representing the ideal situation for children, away from the prying eyes of pornographers. Advocates also held a people’s walk in the afternoon.

 

The campaign was positively received by Cebu, with the provincial council, Cebu City and Balamban town, each passing a resolution in support for the Cebu-wide Day. The municipalities of Cordova, Compostela and Moalboal have also passed similar resolutions saying “this vicious social malady that pierces the vulnerability of our innocent and (vulnerable) children has to end if we have to spare society’s moral foundation and fiber.”

 

Rescuing children from child porn rings The NGO Terre des Hommes, a children’s aid organization from the Netherlands, was one of the event’s supporters. “Everybody could do something to end child cyber pornography,” says Telay Echano, Terre des Hommes’ Philippine coordinator, adding, “There is a way out.”

 

Cebu-based NGO’s Children’s Legal Bureau (CLB), Foundation and the Fellowship for Organizing Endeavors (FORGE), and Bidlisiw also took part in putting together the Day to End Child Pornography.

 

In a phone interview with GMA News Online, CLB executive director Joan Saniel said that RA 9775, or the Anti Child Pornography Law, has been helpful in raising awareness in the existence of child porn rings in the Philippines. The law was passed in 2009.

 

“We have recognized the problem in Cebu, but I would think it is also happening in other provinces, in part due to easy Internet access,” she said. Saniel had earlier warned that child cyber pornography is spreading in the six districts of Cebu and most likely the whole country as an easy way out of poverty.   Though, official data on children trapped in child cyber porn activities are still lacking, Saniel said that trends do show a rising number of Filipino children are forced to perform sexual acts in front of the webcam for about P300 daily. Meanwhile, their clients, usually Western pedophiles, watch at the other end of the Internet miles away from them.

 

“Child cyber porn could lead to prostitution if we don’t stop it at once,” says Saniel. It is possible for sex-offenders to come to the Philippines in order to meet and have sex with the children, she added. 

 

To help stop this, she and her colleagues have urged LGU’s to make the Day to End Child Pornography a yearly event. CLB has also organized barangay councils for the protection of children. 

 

They have several cases in court against pedophiles and children traffickers, Saniel said. The organization also facilitates the rescue of children caught up in pornography rings.

 

Bidlisiw's (Cebuano for “rays of the sun”)  Pamela Uy said that working together would help authorities immediately see the warning signs, foremost of which is, astoundingly, letting a child pose nude in front of the webcam.  — DVM/HS, GMA News