AT A UNITED Nations high-level meeting in New York, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher of the Vatican said “technology is being used to exacerbate certain forms of abuse and violence,” adding that the gravity of the violence and abuse against women and children extended beyond sexual exploitation and trafficking.
That technology he spoke of is the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven internet, where sexual violence is widespread. A UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) study, titled “Disrupting Harm,” said the Philippines had the highest number of victims of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children among the 13 countries included in the research.
Parents have much to worry about these days, since almost every school-age child has access to a mobile phone and the internet, and that is a great danger to them. Children are very secretive about their personal lives, and most parents cannot monitor what their children are doing on the internet.
The Philippines is a hotspot of online child sexual abuse. Thousands of foreign pedophiles are searching to trap children in their net of abuse and evil, which includes extortion. Pedophiles pay large sums of money to poor families for food and education. When they become dependent on the money, the parents or relatives are persuaded by these pedophiles to perform sexual acts on the children on the internet that can be watched via mobile phones.
Parents say they do it because of poverty, adding that there is no physical contact involved, but this still doesn’t justify their heinous crime. Victims as young as 5 years old do not know what is happening to them or that it is a serious crime against them. They are easily intimidated, as well as violated and psychologically damaged.
When children use the internet, AI-driven search engines can bring them into contact with abusers lurking online. There are the scammers, the abusers who pretend to be teenage boys or girls and befriend unsuspecting children. After days of chatting with and flattering these children, the abusers persuade them to expose themselves sexually. Once they do, abusers record the children or goad them into sending photos of themselves naked or in sexually suggestive poses. Then the so-called friends spring their trap, demand money or sexual favors from the children, and threaten to send the incriminating video or photos to their classmates, parents or teachers, or post them on social media. Unsurprisingly, these children are devastated, but they could tell no one. The extorting abusers can then meet their victims and demand sexual favors.
One case on trial in Cagayan is an example of this. A Catholic priest had lured and groomed a girl to go with him to a hotel, where he raped her and recorded it on video. He then used the video to keep her silent, and repeated the assault. But the girl ultimately told friends about it. The suspect is now on trial. (To be continued)/PN
