AT NO other time has the Philippines faced such a moral crisis and challenge to its integrity as a nation. Government officials, civil society and child protectors are challenged to take a stronger moral and social stand against the ever-spreading proliferation of crimes against children, especially over the internet.
It is here, Unicef says, where two million Filipino children suffer abuse multiple times in their childhood. The sexual abuse of children in their homes is also a horrific crime, the extent of which is unfolding daily.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. addressed this issue in his State of the Nation Address (SONA). He did not propose clear solutions but highlighted the drastic, serious plight and situation of children and youth being seduced, brainwashed, abused, trafficked and driven to commit sexual and violent acts against other children.
He mentioned the tragic shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City. The teenage shooters were most likely driven by the violence that they experienced online over the internet. The telecoms and the internet service providers are responsible for allowing these violent games of killing and maiming people and failing to block the child sexual abuse videos and images that drive 12- and 13-year-old boys to rape six-year-old girls.
The President is fielding 10,000 school counselor associates to public schools to help these children. He is not condemning them as young criminals as his predecessor did, who is an accused criminal himself sitting in a jail cell in the Netherlands.
However, so long as the telecom companies disregard and ignore the law mandating the installation of blocking software in their servers, the violent instigations by people like the Tate brothers and downloading of child abuse videos and images will continue. His solution is to treat the symptoms, but the root cause of the internet viral contamination of the youth is the telecoms themselves. Saving and protecting young people from perverse influences is the duty of the entire Filipino community, Marcos said.
The shootings in Tacloban by teenagers and the sexual abuse or rape of six- and seven-year-old girls by young boys have been influenced by the malign influence of people like Andrew and Tristan Tate.
These brothers make millions of dollars by spreading hatred of females through their online sites that are available to all, especially youths. They promote and cultivate a shocking, violent culture of male dominance. They encourage youths to dominate girls and women, and they promote supermasculine abuse like sexual domination, preaching that males are the dominant gender and females are inferior and available for the pleasure and sexual gratification of males.
That is a toxic mix for teenagers who are only just discovering their male sexuality and masculinity. The Tates encourage total control over women and girls that drives young males to sexually abuse children and women instead of teaching teenage males that their role is to respect, honor, help, serve, protect and support a loving family and children, and not to dominate and abuse them.
In the United Kingdom, the Tate brothers face a total of 59 criminal charges for rape, human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The UK government is seeking their extradition from the United States to stand trial. (To be continued)/PN
