Doing more to protect our children

For those who haven’t seen the movie “Sound of Freedom,” I would urgently suggest that you go and see it online and you will definitely be more than teary eyed upon watching the film. At the very least, I believe it has become our responsibility to educate ourselves on the dangers of human trafficking and exploitation of women and children around the world, especially because this global crisis is considered to be the second largest criminal industry worldwide, affecting the most vulnerable people in society.

As a journalist, looking into stories of abuse of children is difficult and even harder to fully grasp when left to one’s own imagination as no sound human being can ever – and I say this in the words used by our President – fathom what is done to our poor children.

Last Monday, emotional as he was, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. spoke and urged the government to take collective action and extra effort to eradicate cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC).

During the “Iisang Nasyon, Iisang Aksyon: Tapusin Ang Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children Ngayon Summit 2024” held in Makati City, the President emphasized how government must strengthen its efforts against the sexual exploitation of children online. Many of you may ask –what does online sexual abuse of children look like? It must be remembered that this kind of abuse typically involves a wide variety of behaviors and situations that include grooming, live streaming and even blackmailing. This type of abuse is composed of any kind of abuse that occurs on the web, whether it be on social networks, online games or through using mobile phones.

Cyber bullying or peer-to-peer violence can also occur, affecting young people each and every time they log in on their social media platforms or instant messaging, exposing them to hate speech or harassment. Such incidents are not only disturbing but also dangerous to a point where it threatens global security as a whole, not to mention the potential long-term impact on victims.

More and more Filipino children are being abused and exploited online by perpetrators who groom children by building trust and confidence with them, after which videos of them being sexually abused are shared and even sold online. It is even more shocking when you hear about babies as young as three months old who are reported as victims of online sexual abuse and exploitation.

I fully agree with our President and in fact, we must back him up in doing more for our children who fall victim to such demonic acts as indeed, like he said, it is one of the greatest challenges of our time. The fact that there are people out there who would watch and pay for videos of children being abused is downright outrageous and imposes a serious threat to the most basic and most important unit of society being the family.

President Marcos stressed that more has to be done to help our children as, first and foremost, they are the future of this nation. Despite the cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, the President also recognized the aggressive move of the Department of Justice Interagency Council Against Trafficking as well as the Department of the Interior and Local Government, together with the International Justice Mission.

Under the Bagong Pilipinas, the President committed to further protecting our children and vowed to go after those who are to be punished or found responsible for committing crimes of OSAEC. Sexual abuse is a form of sexual violence and traffickers who live-stream such abuse must face the consequences of their actions and must take full notice of the fact that this is not only a mere exchange of explicit images, as very young girls and boys are coerced to perform sexual acts by an adult and are further exploited in other violent ways.

In a report by the Philippine News Agency, records from the Philippine National Police show that 1,099 victims were rescued from 237 operations with 138 suspects arrested, 139 cases filed and 41 perpetrators convicted.

We must all do our part to protect our children and safeguard our communities from these types of crime and parents must equip their children by educating them on online predators and implement proper parental control measures for their online activities. It takes both government and civil society to advance efforts in protecting our children from predators, where technology has become an increasingly powerful medium for child sexual abuse and exploitation.

In the era of digital technology, we are confronted by a global problem that is victimizing the most vulnerable – our children. The call to action is now.