Social workers escort one of the children rescued in another cybersex enterprise in Cordova town, Cebu on July 12, 2011, a month after the first raid of a family home.
CYBERPORNOGRAPHY
(PART 3)
Like the menace of illegal drugs, cyber pornography has been prevalent in the Philippines and poses serious threats to families and children.
“It’s very alarming and it’s getting larger at the threshold,” said Francis Señora, senior agent of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) Cybercrime Department.
Fueled by lust and the desire for “easy money,” people engage in cyber pornography, which in a number of instances, has become a family business.
Children are pushed by their own parents into cyberpornography by making them believe that this was a normal job.
The fact that not all cases involve actual sexual contact or direct intrusion of the body also makes the young victims think that such was okay.
“Child pornography is an industry, and people are earning money. Children are made to believe that there’s nothing wrong with it,” Señora said.
Data obtained from the International Justice Mission (IJM), a non-governmental organization actively fighting all forms of human trafficking and child exploitation, reveal that over 300 victims of online sexual exploitation of children had been rescued throughout the Philippines since government stepped up its campaign against cyber pornography.
As of April 2018, at least 133 suspects were arrested — 77 percent of whom were parents, relatives, and close family friends of the victims.
In Cebu, law enforcement units have rescued 155 victims, and arrested 53 cyber porn suspects since 2011.
Of the number, only 11 persons had been convicted.
Disturbing
Lawyer John Tanagho, IJM Cebu field office director, said the state of online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC), otherwise known as cyber pornography, is very disturbing.
He said that on average, the Department of Justice’s Cybercrime Office receives over 2,600 “cybertip” referrals of different forms of online sexual exploitation each month.
“It is not just nude photos as some think. Online sexual exploitation of children involves the actual sexual abuse of children. Young Filipino children have been molested and sexually abused by adults, forced to have sex with other children, made to use sex toys to portray sex acts, made to touch themselves, and other sexually explicit conduct,” Tanagho told Cebu Daily News.
And the victims, he added, were very young.
Based on their records, over 50% of the rescued victims in the Philippines were just 12 years old or younger.
Some, he said, were even babies and toddlers.
Easy money
Cyber pornography thrives, Tanagho explained, because of people who are easily enticed by money without having to work hard.
He said sex predators usually pay between P1,000 to P5,000 for every “livestream” of the sexual act.
“Because the transactions happen online, the suspects believe they are anonymous on the internet and think police can’t find them. They think they won’t get caught,” Tanagho said.
Instead of using laptop computers, several people who are into cyber pornography have shifted to using cellular phones to make it more difficult for law enforcers to track them down while shooting the live lewd acts.
Though technology makes it harder for authorities to combat cyber pornography, Tanagho said they continue to collaborate with international law
enforcement agencies in the investigation of cases involving online sexual exploitation and abuse of children throughout the Philippines.
“Effective law enforcement stops criminals and protects children from online sexual exploitation,” he said.
Their efforts are bearing fruit as more and more suspected online traffickers have been arrested each month.
This year, arrests were made in Cordova town, Lapu-Lapu City, Tacloban City, and Biliran town for alleged online trafficking.
Cordova, a 3rd class municipality on Mactan island, has been identified by law enforcers as a “hotspot” for home-based cyberporn.
Last year, police also arrested suspected online traffickers in other places of the Visayas such as Bacolod, Bohol, Leyte, and the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Talisay in Cebu.
Obstacles
Señora said some existing policies, prevent law enforcement agencies from going full blast in investigating the online sexual exploitation of children.
For one, he said it remains difficult to trace cellular phone numbers and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses due to the lack of regulations mandating the specific registration of owners.
“In other countries, you have to give your passport or whatever identification before you get a SIM card. But here in the Philippines, you just can buy SIM cards for P20 to P50,” said Señora.
But despite the obstacles, Señora assured the NBI and police authorities are doing their best to fight online sexual exploitation of children.
“We try to get human information from locals and coordinate with foreign counterparts for intelligence reports,” he said.
Solutions
Señora is grateful that local government units are taking steps to stop cyber pornography.
Both the Mandaue City government and Cordova town are implementing an ordinance requiring businesses engaged in money remittances to submit a monthly report on customers and suspicious transactions which may be related to cyberpornography.
There are plans to replicate the scheme in the entire province of Cebu, as officials believe that money transfer establishments are being used as conduit by criminals engaged in human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
“Our children are supposed to be our treasure. We will try our best to go after those who exploit our children. We must remember that victims can be potential perpetrators if nothing is done to help them,” he said.
Porn effects
Rosemarie Gonato, a psychologist specializing in trauma and child abuse, said sustained exposure to pornography leads to serious psychological disorders in minors and even adults.
“Constant exposure to pornographic materials will register in the brain. The images are hard to erase especially when one gets used to them. The effect will set-in later. That’s why they need long-term intervention. How long? That would depend on how a child copes,” she told CDN.
Gonato, who testified in a trial of as an expert witness for the prosecution, said that she was happy that the kids who were rescued from their parents in the first major cyber pornography operation in Cebu in 2011 have recuperated.
“They responded to the treatment. The new environment and the support from people help,” she said.
(To be continued)
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