CHILDREN younger than 15 have access to social media platforms and websites that expose them to child sexual abuse materials, including those captured on video. Because of this, they are subjected to coercive persuasion, undue influence, grooming and inducement to commit crimes against children.
One of them is a smart, 11-year-old boy whom we shall call Ben. He bought a PLDT-powered SIM card and paid a pittance to access social media sites like Facebook.
Ben watched a video of a teenage boy raping a younger child. He then raped another child who’s younger than himself.
Another was Alex, 15. He bought a Globe-powered SIM card at a store to “surf” the internet. He watched online a video showing minors sexually assaulting a 9-year-old. This induced him to rape another 9-year-old himself.
His online chat group is where his friends share videos of adults and children being sexually abused, mostly Filipino female high school students. Such acts are recorded on video and distributed over the internet provided by the telcos, and posted on various platforms like Telegram and internet chat groups.
Then there’s John, also 15. He said he would buy 100MB of data from PLDT and occasionally from Dito to surf the internet and view illegal content. His online group shares “scandal videos,” which show teenage students being sexually abused. Viewing these tempted him, and he later sexually abused his 9-year-old cousin.
This uncontrolled access to social media and group chats is a commercial product that harms children, and it is sold by the telcos. This product made available to children is causing child rape by inducing adults and minors to abuse children. These telcos are aiding child abusers.
The NTC has to take strong legal action. They could file a criminal case, hold telcos as principals and have them convicted of inducing a crime under Article 17 of the Revised Penal Code. It would be as if the telcos committed the crime themselves. These firms also abet the transmission of images of criminal acts, allowing these to stay in their servers and pass on to others.
Section 10c of RA 7610 penalizes any person who uses, coerces, forces, or intimidates a child to conduct “any illegal activities.” That’s what the telcos do. Children 15 years old and younger are exempt from criminal liability under RA 9344, or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, but the adults who induced them remain fully responsible. The Chief Executive Officers of these telcos can be held liable.
The NTC is mandated by law to enforce the provisions of RA 11930 and protect children from heinous sex crimes. The evidence indicates that these provisions are not being effectively enforced.
Besides, a P2-million fine is nothing to the telcos; they can earn that amount every hour. A monthly P500-million fine would be better until they install state-of-the-art blocking filtering software, such as Netsweeper, PhotoDNA, VideoDNA, and Shield by Project Arachnid of the Canadian Center for Child Protection./PN
