HOW SHOCKING and shameful that Filipino children are being sexually exploited by their own relatives for money from foreigners!
The telcos allowing this to happen must be held responsible for transmitting child abuse images through their servers. They are corrupt and must be held accountable for violating Republic Act (RA) 9775.
Their defense is denial, saying they don’t allow it intentionally. But their wrongdoing lies in their failure to implement the law and install available AI-driven blocking and filtering software. They say they are monitoring illegal websites sharing still images and videos of child abuse and closing them down in cooperation with the Internet Watch Foundation, a nongovernmental organization based in the United Kingdom.
Horrific images of little children, some as young as three years old, are among the many thousands being sexually abused live on the internet, and these can be reached on the computers, tablets and smartphones of Filipinos and pedophiles here and abroad, as detected by international law enforcement. Local law enforcement agencies are apparently incapable of such cyber-detection and intervention.
Pedophiles in Europe have been arrested and convicted in Belgium and Switzerland for ordering and paying for these appalling livestreaming shows. Their convictions show that there is no blocking software installed by telcos. Thousands of young people have been psychologically damaged after being groomed sexually and abused online by the sex shows they are forced to participate in to gratify the urges of local and foreign pedophiles.
Who has the power and authority to stop this gross child abuse?
No one, it seems, not even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who expressed shock and horror when he was informed about and shown examples of such online child abuse.
The real power, more powerful than President Marcos or the government, is the telcos. They really rule the Philippines. They have billions of reserve funds at their disposal, yet they fail to obey the law and install AI-powered detection and blocking software to make the internet safer.
Hundreds of thousands of children are abused on the internet, to which they provide access without safeguards. Government officials must find the courage to strictly implement Philippine laws, specifically Republic Act (RA) 9775 and RA 11930, that demand they install the latest blocking software to stop the repeated transmissions of child abusive images.
The situation has become so bad that the Philippines has been named as the world’s “hot spot” for online sexual abuse and exploitation of children. This is a shameful title, one that we must eliminate by action to compel the telco tycoons to implement the law and protect children, and give them a chance to lead a healthy and moral life, with their respect and dignity intact and all their rights protected./PN
