PARENTS, grandparents, guardians: beware.
If you love the children in your care, you need to know how vulnerable they are to abuse on the internet through social media platforms.
Knowledgeable parents demand controls over telecommunications corporations (telcos) and internet service providers (ISPs) to block these abusive platforms. Some nations, like Australia, have enacted laws that restrict children 16 years and younger from accessing a number of these platforms. The Philippines should also pass such laws.
Children are becoming increasingly secretive and distancing themselves from their parents and siblings as they spend hours on social media daily. Parents and guardians feel they are losing their children or wards to manipulative people who are contacting, grooming and controlling these youngsters online.
Such contacts, and the streaming of child abuse images and videos, expose children and young people to negative influences that are causing serious mental health issues, sexual grooming, sextortion, harassment, bullying, emotional distress and other serious problems.
A United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) study in the Philippines in 2015 found that one in two children experienced online violence of some kind, one in every five children ages between 12 and 17 who use the internet suffered serious online sexual abuse and exploitation. This translates to about 20 percent of internet-using children, or an estimated 2 million children, every year.
Only 4 percent of those victimized ever report such abuse and exploitation to the police or call helplines due to stigma, fear and a lack of awareness of available help. And in 2016, Unicef found, through another research, that 80 percent of Filipino children are in danger of being sexually abused or taken advantage of online.
More disturbing revelations indicate that the passage of Republic Act (RA) 11930, or the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children (Osaec) and Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials in 2022, the production, distribution and possession of abusive materials continue online, and telcos do little to block them. RA 11930 makes it illegal to give anyone access to such materials.
Maria (not her real name), 6, was sexually assaulted by her neighbor Joshua (also not his real name), 13, after he watched videos on a child porn website. He borrowed a low-cost mobile phone and connected to the internet for an hour by paying a pittance to the telco and ISP.
Maria told her parents about the assault. Her father threatened to kill Joshua. He was brought to the Preda Foundation’s home for children in conflict with the law to learn moral values and adolescent reproductive health and sexuality. There, he described how he was aroused by what he viewed online and was encouraged to commit the serious crime.
In Australia, parents demanded a new law banning people 16 and younger from accessing social media platforms such as TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Threads. Under that law, those younger than 16 will not be allowed to open new accounts and must delete their accounts on these platforms. (To be continued)/PN
