FOR MOST parents, one of their greatest worries is that they could lose their children, in mind and soul, to sex predators online who lure them into dangerous and unhealthy relationships. They contact these children on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and secretly groom them for illegal sexual activities.
When worried parents see their mobile phone-addicted children and question them, they are likely to be met with resistance and even hostility. That is when ties between parents and children begin to break. In Australia, a new law was passed to restrict people younger than 16 from using such platforms.
Telecommunications corporations (telcos) and internet service providers are enabling online child sexual abuse because they do not install blocking software despite Republic Act 11930 requiring them to do so.
When some telco tycoons and government officials get into a mutually beneficial relationship, chances are the law would not be enforced. Our telecommunications commission is a toothless tiger.
The result? Our children are allowed to be abused on the internet, and telcos — and their investors and officers — rake in the profits.
Child safety depends on these telco owners and operators having a moral conscience and spiritual values, which only few of them seem to have. They are driven more by profit than concern for child safety.
The battleground to protect children online is now moving to manufacturers of mobile phones and laptops, and to child-protecting legislators. Cybersecurity company SafeToNet has invented and tested a software that is artificial intelligence (AI)-taught. It can be installed in a computer or mobile phone’s operating system.
The software is capable of detecting and blocking child sexual abuse material, no matter where it comes from, be it from any individual or social media platform.
SafeToNet has made it clear the software is not capable of recording or storing data, or monitoring any normal content or identifying the owner. It is just capable of blocking child abuse content from the internet. A strong law mandating the installation of this software by manufacturers will have to be fought for, passed and enforced.
Refusing anyone to allow such software to be part of a device’s operating system may indicate the objector wants to permit and view child sexual abuse content. This puts telcos on the spot. Do they want child-safe devices or not? If United States President Donald Trump’s new mobile phone service is to have such software installed, it would likely pass into law.
Teenagers and younger children are currently without protection and are targets for online abuse, including grooming for and the livestreaming of sex abuse acts. Some perpetrators of this abuse are the children’s own relatives who are selling the sex shows to foreign customers. The sextortion of teenagers is increasing and a number of them have killed themselves over it. (To be continued)/PN
