Thousands of parents are deeply worried that their children are being influenced by bad actors on social media that are far beyond their understanding or control.
They cannot control what their children are viewing or who they are chatting with. They should be very worried because thousands of children are being brainwashed and groomed into participating in sex-based chat rooms on the internet, viewing child pornography, and damaging their lives.
Many children are being exposed to child pornography online as part of a grooming process to persuade them to show themselves naked while they are secretly recorded. The predators, posing as young boyfriends, persuade girls, some as young as 11 years old, to undress and pose naked.
Unknown to them, they are videotaped. The predators then blackmail these girls by threatening to send the video to their parents and schoolmates, as well as post it on social media platforms.
Some boys as young as 13 make these threats to intimidate and gain control of a girl and force her to have sex with them. In one case, these are the tactics used by two boys, ages 13 and 15, who raped an 11-year-old girl after they blackmailed her.
They learned about this on the internet, where they frequently watched child pornography. The same uncontrolled internet that is cheap and easily available in the Philippines, to which millions of Filipino children have access.
It is uncontrolled despite laws requiring internet service providers (ISPs) owned by the huge telecommunications corporations (telcos) — like PLDT, DITO, and Globe — to install blocking and filtering software driven by artificial intelligence (AI).
Approximately 96 percent of the population between the ages of 13 and 17 are internet users. Data also show that a large number of young Filipinos use social media weekly, with 92 percent of those ages 12 to 15 and 97 percent of those ages 16 and 17 using it at least once a week.
As I have previously written in this space, the many postings and communications on major social media platforms, accessed through ISPs, are leading to serious sins and crimes against children. These include “sextortion,” suicides, drug overdoses, blackmail, grooming leading to child rape, excessive gambling, scams and other fraudulent activities. These platforms are like crime scenes, but no one is held accountable.
The Philippines is now regarded, at least by some, as the center of online child sexual abuse, where relatives or even parents of young children expose them and make them perform sexual acts online in real time, enabled by the internet connection provided by our country’s major telcos.
They allow the transmission of these live sex shows to paying customers in foreign countries. How shocking and shameful that Filipino children are being sexually exploited by their own relatives for money from foreigners!
The telcos allowing this to happen must be held responsible for transmitting child abuse images through their servers. They are corrupt and must be held accountable for violating the Republic Act (RA) 9775. Their defense is denial, saying they don’t allow it intentionally.
But their wrongdoing lies in their failure to implement the law and install available AI-driven blocking and filtering software. They say they are monitoring illegal websites sharing still images and videos of child abuse and closing them down in cooperation with the Internet Watch Foundation, a nongovernmental organization based in the United Kingdom.
Horrific images of little children, some as young as 3 years old, are among the many thousands being sexually abused live on the internet, and these can be reached on the computers, tablets, and smartphones of Filipinos and pedophiles here and abroad, as detected by international law enforcement. Local law enforcement agencies are apparently incapable of such cyber-detection and intervention.
Pedophiles in Europe have been arrested and convicted in Belgium and Switzerland for ordering and paying for these appalling livestreaming shows. Their convictions show that there is no blocking software installed by telcos. Thousands of young people have been psychologically damaged after being groomed sexually and abused online by the sex shows they are forced to participate in to gratify the urges of local and foreign pedophiles.
Who has the power and authority to stop this gross child abuse? No one, it seems, not even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who expressed shock and horror when he was informed about and shown examples of such online child abuse. The real power, more powerful than President Marcos or the government, is the telcos. They really rule the Philippines.
They have billions of reserve funds at their disposal, yet they fail to obey the law and install AI-powered detection and blocking software to make the internet safer. Hundreds of thousands of children are abused on the internet, to which they provide access without safeguards. Government officials must find the courage to strictly implement Philippine laws, specifically RA 9775 and RA 11930, that demand they install the latest blocking software to stop the repeated transmissions of child-abusive images.
The situation has become so bad that the Philippines has been named as the world’s “hot spot” for online sexual abuse and exploitation of children. This is a shameful title, one that we must eliminate by action to compel the telco tycoons to implement the law and protect children, and give them a chance to lead a healthy and moral life, with their respect and dignity intact and all their rights protected.
Note: Any original information, stories, or news articles posted on this site that are authored by the Preda Foundation and Father Shay Cullen may be shared, copied, or reproduced without further permission, in support of truth, freedom of expression, and the public’s right to know.
LiCAS News was granted permission to republish and adapt this article by Father Shay Cullen in the spirit of truth-telling and the pursuit of justice.
Irish missionary Father Shay Cullen, SSC, founded the Preda Foundation in Olongapo City in 1974 to promote human rights and the rights of children, especially victims of sexual abuse.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of LiCAS News.
