BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
ONLINE sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) is the shocking reality that all parents, guardians, church leaders, and business corporations have to challenge and confront but they don’t. It is spreading everywhere and trapping children and youth in systems of sexual abuse and extortion and it is frequently met with a cold stony silence by those whose duty it is to protect children.
The telecommunication corporations and their Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are to be held responsible by a new bill amending RA 9775 to protect children by installing software blocking the transmission of child sexual abuse materials. In the past, they refused to do so citing contradictions in the law. These objections and excuses have now been addressed by the bill and, if passed into law, they would have no excuse not to obey the law as contained in Senate Bill 2209.
Child sexual abuse materials can be accessed by anyone online by cell phone and these easily available materials are driving the actual abuse and rape of children by other children, my parents, relatives, and neighborhood pedophiles. The church and government have to speak out and act to stop and prevent it by insisting the law is enforced.
It is an alarming situation documented by reliable government agencies. Eight out of ten Filipino children suffered some form of violence in their lifetime (CWC and UNICEF, 2016). The Philippines is now 12th among countries with the highest incidence of modern-day sex slavery in the entire Asia Pacific with more than 700,000 cases of trafficking annually (Global Slavery Index, 2018).
A shocking statistic is that one in every five children between the ages of 12 and 17 experienced online sexual abuse on the internet (UNICEF, Interpol, ECPAT, 2021). This makes a total of two million children who suffered some form of abuse. Research studies find the Philippines as the global epicenter of the live-stream sexual abuse trade where one in every five children are vulnerable to online sexual exploitation (Unicef, 2016).
The moral values of the nation, church, and family are grievously violated on an unprecedented scale by the influence of child sexual abuse materials passed over the internet to cell phones. Recently, three 10-year-old boys viewed child abuse images on a cell phone and then raped a six-year-old. This is only one of several such cases that have come to our attention. Incredibly, it is in the child’s home where the crime of child sexual abuse mostly happens with a family member as the perpetrator or as facilitators of child trafficking and online sexual exploitation for money. The child victims are damaged for life. (To be continued)/PN
