Parents and the Internet for Good and Bad

 

The moral and spiritual fabric of society is under stress and challenged as never before by the rapid and bewildering spread of Internet-powered social media platforms used by children, students and the youth. At an early age 200 million girls and 100 million boys have access to Internet-based platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and other websites where child and adult abusive images and materials and adult pornography is easily available.

The availability of low-cost smart phones has made it relatively easy for youth to have access to the Internet and a smart phone is a ‘must have” for the youth for social status with their peers and for keeping in contact with their friends. The availability of the smart phone, while it can be used for education and learning and positive and inspiring communication has its dark dangerous side. Like a chameleon, it can change its color in an instant from good to bad. The Internet has accelerated the spread of insidious, evil and damaging child abuse images and adult pornography, viewed by children and youth and it is made available through the telecommunications corporations or Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

These corporations in the Philippines and elsewhere enable and make possible the spread, proliferation and access to the child abuse and exploitation materials and many refuse to install blocking software to filter it out to protect children and adults. In the Philippines, the law (section 9 of RA 9775) dictates that PLDT, GLOBE and DITO must install the software. They refuse to do it.

Parents worldwide are losing touch with their children as the youth move away from parent control into the secret world of social media and have their own circle of contacts on their own Facebook accounts and messenger chat rooms. Through these platforms, undetected by parents, they get in contact with strangers and make special relationships with them. For some, it is a prelude to sexual abuse or exploitation.

Parents, communities and schools need to focus much more on the spiritual life and values formation of the children and youth. Parents need to be role models and heroes to their children by doing inspiring good works as an integral part of being Christian with their children beside them helping. The children will be inspired by the practical service and learning by doing. They will learn the value of sharing and giving and helping.

When parents notice changes in their reclusive child, that spends long hours alone in the bedroom, or loses interest in school and studies, or has a secretive or rebellious attitude with parents, then there is a possibility that they are accessing child abuse material or are in a secret relationship with a groomer or boyfriend or girlfriend on-line. It is not always a suspected drug abuse problem.

This worry or suspicion should never be a point of conflict between parents and their children. Building a strong relationship by shared activities with non-challenging conversation and doing things together is what builds friendship. Being a friend to your child is essential for a healthy family life and positive future for them.

They will feel the trust, understanding, affirmation and being loved by the parents. They will then listen to the friendly advice about the dangers of on-line grooming relationships. Pope Francis has recently declared a new church law criminalizing grooming by clerics and lay leaders in the church.

The damage and hurt to children starts early in life nowadays. Our recent survey of a small sample of 23 Filipino boys from troubled backgrounds and broken homes and who are now aged 15 to 17 years of age gives us an important insight. They have revealed troubling and some shocking information. While it may not be representative of youth at large, it is a troubling phenomenon as they implicate their peers and adults as the people who introduced them to view the inappropriate videos and images. It is indicative that viewing these sexual images and videos on-line is widespread.

Of the 23 boys interviewed, three of them watched sexual child abuse images at the age of seven years old. Two were eight years old while seven of them watched sexual acts online from nine years old and the rest were from 10 to 13 years of age. That is a very young age to be introduced to videos and images of sexual intercourse. There is for many youths an immediate change of perspective and relationship to their parents and girls as a result. They tend to see girls as sexual objects rather than childhood friends.

Of the 23 interviewed, they watched in a computer shop, on a cell phone or on a personal desktop computer. Sixteen of them were introduced to the images by peers and four said they were shown adult pornography by adult neighbors. One was shown pornography by a stranger. Two searched for images themselves and easily found them online. When asked what they feel after watching, ten boys said they felt the desire to have a sexual experience. Three said they felt satisfied and self-pleasured themselves. Two said they felt nothing and the rest said they watched more similar images online. One said he had same sex experience as a result; another said he took a shower and was nervous.

Nine boys reported that their first sexual contact was at the ages of 10, 11, 12 and 15 years of age. Four said they cannot remember how old they were. Ten boys interviewed said that while they watched child abuse material and adult pornography, they did not have any sexual contact.

Yet all of their lives went astray. They were estranged from their parents and family, fell into conflict with the law and stopped studying. How much of this was because of viewing child abuse material or adult pornography at an early age we cannot say but for sure it has a strong negative impact on their self-image and how they view others. Many have sex at an early age. Philippine teenage pregnancy is among the highest in the world.

In Subic, Zambales, three boys 10, 11 and 12 years old, gang raped a six-year old child after watching child abuse material and videos on their cell phones. This proliferation of child abuse material must be stopped and the ISPs must be controlled by strict implementation of the law.

The Good and Bad and the Ugly of the Internet

 

There are essentials of life that we all need nowadays: fresh air, food, water, clothes, shelter, health, electricity, and the Internet. The Internet is now an essential means of human interconnectivity and has become a blessing and a blight on human society depending on who and how it is used or abused. As you read these words, it is because they were sent to you over the Internet.
 
Every industry and most service organizations are almost totally dependent on computer technology that needs connectivity through the Internet. Almost all communication is now Internet-based: e-mail, voice, image and transmission of documents and information storage and dissemination. Conferences and meetings and educational classes are now mostly by Internet.
 
But there are vulnerabilities with this dependency. Hackers can steal data from government and corporations and hold them to ransom as happened to the Irish Health System and  previously to the UK National Health Service (NHS), affecting thousands of patients. The Internet has replaced landline telephone by and large with the smart phone. There 5.7 billion mobile phones in the world today. Movies are being transmitted by live streaming; television will soon follow.
 
It all began when computer scientists sought ways to connect computers so they could communicate with each other over phone lines. It was in the 1970s when scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf developed a way for computers to interface and connect through their invention of the Transmission Control Protocol an d Internet Protocol or TCP/IP. In 1983, this technology was adopted by an existing but ineffective computer network system called Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET).The TCP/IP protocol transformed it to an effective workable communications network.
 
Then other computer networks were developed and all joined together to form the Internet, a global communication network of computers. This enabled the growth of web pages where all kinds of informational content is available, known as the World Wide Web or The Web. A browser or search tool on a computer connected to the Internet can find any information. The content can be good or bad.
 
Another source of abuse is live streaming of illegal images and spreading hate speech, misinformation, and harassing people. The liability of the companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google that enable the posting or accessing of information on their social media platforms is governed by a Provision of the US Communication Decency Act Section 230. It says, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
 
This means the Internet-based platforms cannot be held liable for anything posted on their pages or platforms. They are not publishers like a newspaper. They can allow all kinds of information, statements, articles, news videos and images to be posted there as an exercise of freedom of speech and they are not liable for the content. They make money by gathering the personal data of the people who use their platforms and sell it to advertisers. However, they are not allowed to invade privacy or allow hate speech or inflammatory racist posts or child abuse images. 
 
This flow of information is enabled and made available by Telecommunications Corporations or Internet Server Providers (ISPs). The public pays them to be connected to the Internet. They are not liable for what passes through their servers but they should stop dangerous and illegal content like child abuse images. It like they own a building where the public gather in the lobby and the ISPs allow toxic poison to pass through day and night. The vilest abuse of the Internet is when it is used to share images of children being abused. The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) worldwide should be held responsible by law to install software on their servers to block all child abuse images.
 
In the UK, it is the NGO Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) that does this for the UK-based ISPs and share with many organizations worldwide the result of their work finding child abuse images. However, since all ISPs are connected through the Internet, all have a collective responsibility to install the blocking software and stop the child abuse images entering their severs.
 
If all used the existing blocking software, the evil can be greatly reduced if not eliminated. The IWF can’t do it all. The ISPs, at least, should sign on and join their service. The IWF can find many web pages and sites hosting child abuse images and remove them. IWF told this column, “Our approach has seen the percentage of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) content hosted in the UK decline from 18 percent in 1996 to less than 0.15 percent in 2019, making the UK a very hostile place to share CSAM content online.” How about the rest of the world? The ISPs everywhere should be doing this, too. IWF has shown the way.
 
Microsoft has developed effective softwares, PhotoDNA and VideoDNA, to do this and offers it free of charge. It is effectively used by Internet Watch Foundation. The ISPs everywhere should install this software. In the UK, Lord Raymond Hylton raised the issue in Parliament. A new law in the UK, Online Safety Bill, will establish “Duty of Care.” This will hold telecommunication corporations liable for any content that would harm users.
 
In the Philippines the law requires the ISPs to install the software since 2009 but they have resisted to do so and perhaps pay a small fine instead. This law is being reviewed. PLDT/Smart has recently signed up to get on the recipient list of the IWF. The IWF has identified more than 9,000 sites containing CSAM and all ISPs can now block them if they install the blocking software to do so.
 
But will they or is this just a public relations stunt? Microsoft has told this column that PLDT/Smart has not yet taken the Microsoft blocking software. So the challenge is out there for the ISPs to find a moral conscience, to obey existing laws and take voluntary action to protect children online.

Can President Duterte Make The ISPs Obey The Law?

The massive increase in child sexual abuse videos and images transmitted online over the internet passing through the servers of the Internet service providers (ISPs)- Globe Telecom and PLDT /Smart- has increased from 19,000 in 2019 to 47,937 in 2020 as the result of the lockdown. This is according to the Philippine government Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles speaking for President Rodrigo Duterte.

The child pornography and on-line live streaming of sex acts on Filipino children are continuous horrific heinous crimes as some victims are as young as three years old, among the many thousands sexually abused.

The ISPs and telecommunication corporations have ignored the provision of the 2009 Anti-Child Pornography Law or Republic Act 7995, specifically Section 9 that this writer helped draft and lobbied for strict implementation ever since as published in The Manila Times (The Sunday Times) on many occasions.

No less than President Rodrigo Duterte and his cabinet, in a joint meeting, have issued an order to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to slap sanctions on the telecommunications corporations for non-compliance with the law. This writer has called for penalties against the ISPs and recommended one million pesos a day sanction on each ISP until they show proof that they are complying with the law. Presently, they allegedly escape compliance and agree to pay a small fine rather than obey the law and install blocking software to intercept the child pornography and report it to the authorities as the law demands.

These are the most powerful corporations in the Philippines, not only for financial power, but technological power. They can defy even the government of President Duterte as they are doing at present. In an instant, they can paralyze the nation by cutting off Internet connections and crippling the social media upon which millions depend including the government and the entire economy. We will now campaign through non-government organizations in other countries to pressure their telecommunication corporations to reconsider their partnership with Philippine ISPs Globe Telecom and PLDT/Smart that are non-compliant with Section 9 of RA 9775.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, speaking for President Rodrigo Duterte said as quoted in the media, “All ISPs should also install available technology, program or software to ensure that access to or transmittal of any form of child pornography will be blocked or filtered, according to the law.” That is a powerful order for them to comply. But will they do it?

Who is top dog in this stand-off, which is the most powerful, President Rodrigo Duterte or the presidents and board members of the telecommunications corporations? Will President Duterte and his cabinet really stand strong and compel the ISPs to comply and install and monitor the blocking software?

The ISPs don’t want to do this as they fear losing hundreds of thousands of customers. What kind of evil business is it that is making money by allowing child abusers here and abroad access child pornography and allow child sexual abuse to live-stream through their servers? The arrogance of power knows no limit and the corporations have this kind of power. The software is easily available. Microsoft is just one corporation that can do it effectively using PhotoDNA and VideoDNA technology.

There is a growing movement to repeal section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of the USA that allows the ISPs NOT to be held responsible for what is posted on their servers and networks. After the attack on the Capitol Building in Washington DC driven by social media, that will now change.

The Philippine ISPs are fighting back against Section 9 of RA 9775. They are trying to get an amendment to RA 9775 through the proposed bill of Rizal Second District Rep. Fidel Nograles to members of congress under the guise of strengthening the RA 9775. He is proposing that the most important provision that requires the ISPs to install the child pornography blocking software BE REPEALED! Nograles has filed last year House Bill (HB) 7633 that seeks to remove Section 9 of RA 9775. That is a wrong and immoral proposal. Section 9 is the strongest provision of the law that aims to protect children from child sexual abusers. We can only presume that the ISPs are behind this bill.

Now that President Rodrigo Duterte and his cabinet has correctly come out to support the thousands of Filipino children being sexually abused on-line and in child pornography, that obnoxious bill will die the death it deserves. President Duterte should end his war-on-drugs having done all he can and start a new “war” against child pornography and on-line streaming of child sexual abuse, a true and noble endeavour.

His biggest challengers are the telecommunication corporations. Will he and his government have the courage and power to rise up to meet the ISPs’ arrogant stand of non- compliance with section 9 of RA 9775? Will he reform the NTC and appoint child-friendly defenders?

The question is, “Are the present officials following the command of the ISPs or following President Duterte and his cabinet?” There must be reform of the NTC and imposition of fines of a million pesos a day until compliance is done. Also, a strong legal action by the Department of Justice is needed to enforce the law.

Child defenders can campaign and appeal to the global telecommunication corporations that are in partnership with the Philippine telecommunication corporations to require the Philippines ISPs to be more ethical and lawful. These global companies exercise more corporate responsibility and higher ethical standards. They could decide not to renew contracts with the Philippine ISPs.

Hundreds of thousands of children could be protected and saved from the horrific abuse that they suffer to satisfy the lust and sexual desires of paedophiles and the profit of their enablers. The children are the most important of all in society. The role of governments is to protect the citizens and children are the most vulnerable and need strong action to save and protect them.

The Explosion of Child Abuse Online

The Covid-19 pandemic is on everybody’s mind, weighs on the spirit and invades the body, paralyzes social life and cripples the world economy. Yet, people are adapting, surviving, recovering and are resilient. They, but a few, are coping with the new normal, a reality that the virus is here to stay for a while longer and we have to live and survive it.

The best of human nature is seen in the dedicated service of health care workers. They risk, they sacrifice, they serve. Many tragically die helping others live. What an inspiration they are as they are saving lives and giving back health to the patients with Covid-19.

It is a privilege to help the poor, the sick and the abused children. They are emotionally, physically, and psychologically damaged by the brutal abuse of criminal adults. The dark side of human nature is always with us but now child abuse is expanding like another pandemic due to lock down.

The live streaming of child sexual abuse and the proliferation of pornography that lead to rape has grown. It is the secret crime, done alone to weak vulnerable children that are threatened and terrified to tell of their suffering and ordeal.

For many, it is the perfect crime but brave and courageous children and child defenders and advocates are fighting back. Wherever there are children, there will be abusers. The only gadget needed today to have online live streaming of child abuse is a low-cost smart phone and an internet connection. The internet service providers of the big telecommunication corporations like PLDT/Smart and Globe Telecoms and soon Dito Telecommunity make it all possible.They should have greater corporate responsibility to block the abusive images and video passing through their servers. If they obey the law Republic Act 9775, they would install blocking software to prevent child sexual abuse.Solutions are available. Micosoft PhotoDNA and videoDNA can filter and block the abusive images but the ISPs allegedly prefer to pay a small fine rather protect the children.Senator Imee Marcos has filed a Senate resolution No.487 calling for an investigation into the dismal failures of the telecommunications corporations and their ISPs to block child pornography and live streaming of child abuse under the law.

Jasmin is an 11-year-old child (not her real name) when she was groomed on-line and persuaded by her fake friend to send nude photos of herself and her private parts in return for money. Foolishly, she did it and too late she realized she had been fooled and her pictures appeared as child pornography online via Facebook and likely sold around the world to paedophiles. She is in shock and screams in anger and frustration in the therapy room at the Preda home where she sought help.

Many other children and adults are victims of similar sextortion scams and are being extorted for huge amounts of money by the scammers who lure them into exposing themselves foolishly online. The extortionists are threatening to send the photos to their friends, classmates, parents and teachers. Suicides are common.

The paedophiles, many unable to travel and abuse children themselves, pay adults to perform sexual acts to children while live over the Internet for money. This is despicable, depraved and deserving of life in prison. They are like blood-sucking bats that take the life blood from their victims.

Even Jesus of Nazareth told us the child is the most important in the world and abusers ought to have a millstone tied around their necks and he be thrown into the depth of the sea (Matthew 18:1-7) That’s tough talk indeed. We have to work for justice for the victims.

Child abuse is with us that long and the world religions, the self-appointed guardians of human morality that claim to be the protectors of children, have betrayed the trust given to them. Many clergy have abused children and it is covered up. It was treated lightly, not the heinous crime it truly is for which abusers must be challenged and held accountable.

Non-government organizations, children’s charities and government agencies are fighting human trafficking and child abuse. In 2018, Preda children fought back against their rapists and won 18 convictions. In 2019, they won 20 convictions. Almost all got life sentences in jail. Hopefully more convictions will follow in on-going cases being fought by Preda.

The spreading of child pornography on the Internet to mobile phones incite child rapists to abuse. A child recently rescued by Preda Foundation social workers was Rebecca (not her real name), 14. She was living in a small town in Zambales in dire poverty with her mother. They lived in a small, one room shack made of bamboo slats and a tin roof. Rebecca is mentally challenged, and her adult male neighbours preyed upon her and raped her many times. They threatened her with a knife if she called out. It happened when she was left alone in the shack and the abuse continued until she became pregnant. Rebecca is now safe in the protection and care of the Preda Foundation home for abused children. The Preda Center will heal and help the child pursue justice against her rapists and have them convicted.

Even children view child pornography and are aroused and as reported here previously three boys in Subic town, Zambales, the youngest 10, gang-raped a six-year old. In Sta. Cruz, Zambales, a 13-year old boy sexually assaulted a six-year old girl. The abusers in both these cases were not even reprimanded. In the Subic case, the local authorities allowed the boys to go to relatives in another town instead of getting them counselling and rehabilitation. In the Sta. Cruz case. The boy is still in the community instead of being brought to an Intensive Juvenile Intervention and Support Center. They will likely become adult rapists without help.

This is what is going on daily all over the country. Unless there is less talk and empty promises and more direct positive action to curb online sexual abuse of children, it will only continue to get worse. All who want to help, write your concern to Congresswoman Yeda Marie Romualdez, chairperson of the Committe on the Welfare of Children (https://www.facebook.com/YeddaRomualdez) and Senator Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children and Family Relations (risahq@gmail.com), for them to investigate and challenge the ISPs and bring strict control to the spread of child abuse on the Internet and protect the rights of the children.

The Bright and the Dark Internet

We all love being connected to the internet and it is a wonderful technology for communicating, providing information and entertainment and keeping people connected. Commerce and business is totally dependent on it what with e-mail, conferencing, communication, document transmission in which it is essential and has saved countless number of trees with the reduction in the use of paper.

Today, it brings us live streaming of news, movies, songs and shows. Hollywood and the cinemas will soon be left behind. Traditional mainstream news channels and radio are competing with web-based 24-hours independently produced news streams coming over the internet.

    

Then there is the misuse of the internet to spread fake news and targeted slanted messages influence voters and hijack the democratic process. The use of apps on Facebook to gather personal data and its questionable use by Cambridge Analytica to interfere in the political process and influence the outcome of elections is under investigation. Abuse of data is widespread.

The good and useful technology of the Internet is used for crime, robbery, exploitation and abuse. Cybercrime is a fast growing industry and billions have been lost through hacking of bank accounts, blackmail, and fraud. Jenny and her four teenage friends living in a rural village not far from a big city were offered jobs in hotels and restaurants but they ended up having debts to their trafficker and soon were forced to perform sex acts before a live internet-connected camera for paying customers. They were instructed to shave off all body hair and to look even younger than their real ages of 14 and 15 years. They were victims of live-streaming child pornography. They changed and came to hate themselves and had a very low self-esteem. They despaired of ever paying their debts and escaping to go home and back to school.

They were mercifully rescued in a police operation and were brought to the Preda Foundation Home for Girls where they recovered and regained trust and dignity and overcame the trauma. But thousands of minors don’t get saved and their life is a misery of exploitation and abuse. Local and foreign customers who view them online travel to meet and sexually assault them. International sex tourism is fueled and promoted by child pornography and cyber-sex shows.

The worst form of internet abuse must be the exploiter grooming youth and children on chat forums posing as a new boyfriend or girlfriend. The exploiters persuade the victims to expose themselves and perform a sex act on live camera and they record it. They then blackmail the youth by threatening  to post the images on the internet and send them to their parents or friends.  It has led to many suicides, how many we don’t know, but the rate of youth suicides has increased dramatically in recent years. Teenagers have to be protected, educated and warned of this kind of crime that targets them.

In a study by the World Health Organization (WHO), it said that “in the 90 countries (areas) studied, suicide was the fourth leading cause of death among young males and the third for young females. Of the 132,423 deaths of young people in the 90 countries, suicide accounted for 9.1 percent.”

According to the WHO suicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-29 year olds globally. These are shocking statistics and the abuse of the internet for crime maybe the cause of the increase in suicides. These criminals cut short the lives of thousands of young people.

     

Another terrible crime perpetrated over the internet is child pornography. This has grown hugely and is one serious contributing cause of the growing number of children being sexually assaulted. It is a serious crime in itself in almost every country. In the Philippines under the anti-child pornography law, the making and/or distribution of child pornography carries up to twenty years in prison. The possession of illegal images by individuals on their computers or mobile phones carries a heavy penalty and a huge fine. Weak implementation of the law is a problem and child pornography is common.

The anti-child pornography law known as Republic Act 9775 imposes these penalties. The law was first proposed and lobbied to Senator Jamby Madrigal by this column writer and became law in 2009. It is a unique law since it orders that the big corporations that make internet connections possible through their computers (the Internet Server Providers or ISPs) supervised by the National Telecommunications Commission install software that identifies, blocks and filters out child pornography.  

Section 9 of the law states that “all ISPs shall install available technology, program or software to ensure that access to or transmittal of any form of child pornography will be blocked or filtered. An ISP who shall knowingly, willfully and intentionally violate this provision shall be subject to the penalty provided under Section 15(k) of this Act. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) shall promulgate within ninety (90) days from the effectivity of this Act the necessary rules and regulations for the implementation of this provision which shall include, among others, the installation of filtering software that will block access to or transmission of any form of the child pornography.”

However it seems that this law is not being respected and implemented. Child pornography and cyber sex crimes in the Philippines are rampant, widespread and growing. Thousands of children are being sexually abused and photographed and their images are sold locally and abroad. This is the worst crime of all and the powerful allow it with impunity. We need to stand against it and work to protect children and bring the abusers and enablers to justice. 

Success Against the Child Abusers Online

The year 2017 is a good year for the campaign and the fight against child sexual abuse online. Hundreds of men in Europe and America and Asia have been arrested. Police have gathered evidence of their illegal actions viewing and sharing images of children being sexually abused. They are the customers of these images and other pedophiles and criminals are actually abusing children and selling or sharing the images of the abuse.

The number of reports of child abuse is pouring in to the police in the developed countries. Interpol and the FBI recently arrested 870 pedophiles caught online connected to an international pedophile ring. They saved hundreds of children in one of the most important operations of investigating child sexual abuse online. After cracking the world’s biggest child pornography website run by a Florida-based 58-year old criminal Stephen Chase, the police got him 30 years in jail and many of 870 caught will receive similar sentences, we hope. His website promoting child abuse had 150,000 users.

He alone had that huge number of subscribers. How many more online abusers are still out there and how many are travelling abroad to abuse the children? For every image of an abused child, a child has been raped. When the images are shared, the child is abused again. The images encourage and induce men to abuse children in their own countries and to travel to countries abroad to actually abuse children. That’s why the human rights organization Preda Foundation based in Olongapo City, Philippines (www.preda.org) is supporting and encouraging the new proposed law banning the travelling abroad of convicted pedophiles in every country worldwide.

The police cracking the encryption used by the online abusers are highly trained as code breaking specialists cracking the codes and layers of protection on the “dark web” used by pedophiles. Soon they will have nowhere to hide. Every time a pedophile opens his computer to view the images of child abuse he is committing a crime and he does not know that the police is monitoring him. They all should be worried that the police are gathering evidence against him or against his contacts and fellow child abusers that will lead back to him.

It’s now a dangerous world for these child abusers as the police are using powerful anti-encryption software to break into the online accounts of the abusers. Some critics say the CIA developed the encryption methods and spread them free online, attributed the creation of them to another person. Now law enforcement can actually see what is being encrypted because they have the codes. They wrote them, it is conjectured.

In England one police official has asked the judiciary to look for another way to punish low-level offenders who view illegal images of children being sexually assaulted without court proceedings. The police, he says, are overwhelmed with the increasing number of reports of child sexual abuse and they are investigating many hundreds of reports. They are overwhelmed and need to focus on saving the victims being abused in the real world, he says.

But that is not the way to go. Every online abuser must be held accountable because the more people view the images, the more children are actually abused. If the judiciary treated drug users as patients and not criminals, it would unburden the police and the courts and they could focus on catching the child abusers and jailing them. The growing success of the police these years indicates extent of child abuse online and in the real world. It supports the long held estimate that one in every three girls are victims of sexual abuse and one in six boys are victims too.

This is a terrible indictment of the human species, the one with the big brains, intelligence and massive organized technological society ever to inhabit the planet earth, the one that routinely sexually abuses their own offspring and vulnerable children. I have not seen report where the other creatures on the planet do this.

In this generation the world is only awaking and confronting this terrible crime against children. In 1989 the UN Convention of the Rights of the  Child was first proposed and passed by majority of the nations in 1990. Only then were the rights of the children formally proclaimed. National laws followed.

Sexual abuse of child has long-term effects. It damages the human person for life and leads to many psychological problems, addiction, dependency, self-harm, and suicides. We need to know that emotionally disturbed people should not be judged as psychologically unbalanced, mentally sick but understood as carrying unbearable burdens and are in need of support and help.

The spread of harmful drug abuse with youth and adults can be linked to childhood abuse and it is just desperate self-medication to ease the pain, the suffering and the fear. They need help to forget the abuse and the anger and hatred that they carry with them.

Many know that the many victims need a cure and emotional expression therapy is a great help. It is successful when the victim is sharing the deepest feelings about the abuse with another understanding, supportive trusted person and unburdening themselves. It is not always a hopeless situation of the abused person. This is a path to recovery and a more balanced life with inner freedom from the tension and pressure of the buried pain.

Take action today and join the Preda Keyboard Advocacy Project. Download articles like this one at www.preda.org and share it with your contacts, friends, and politicians. Join the campaign to have laws that ban convicted pedophiles from traveling abroad. You can save hundreds of children from abuse.

Cybersex, Crime of the Century

The photograph in itself is a kind of pornography of the wealthiest oligarchs, tycoons, money-magnets, business moguls, elite Industrialists, rogue capitalists, barons of industry and financial tyrants and heads of corporate conglomerates some ethical business people, call them what you will but words fail me. They are among the estimated some 0.0001 percent of the Philippine mega-rich that own and control the entire economy of 103 Million Filipinos.

The Philippines has 21 billionaires, according to Forbes Magazine, with a record number this year. The richest - retail and property mogul Henry Sy - has a net worth of US$13.7 billion (S$19.6 billion). They take their place among the world’s richest people, eight of whom, according to an Oxfam report, own more wealth than half the people in the world.

The Philippine tycoons stood with President Rodrigo Duterte for the photograph in the Presidential Palace last Tuesday 17 January 2017 to capture the moment for posterity. They joyfully feasted and talked business for three hours over a sumptuous meal that would have fed 200 people for a week. These are the very people that the president vowed to bring down. He may be fattening them up for the kill.

"The only way for deliverance of this country is to remove it from clutches of the few people who hold the power and money," Duterte said last 23 November 2016. The president had previously warned the telecoms corporations such as Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co and Globe Telecom to change their monopolistic ways. They are the leading Internet Server Providers (ISPs) and are allegedly in violation of the Anti-Child Pornography Law of 2009 for failing to block child pornography on their servers.

Last August 2, 2016 President Rodrigo Duterte promised he would destroy the Philippine "oligarchs.” On another occasion, he said he would destroy the corrupt business tycoons and moguls. "I am fighting a monster... Believe me, I will destroy their clutches in our nation," Duterte said at an environment summit in southern Davao City last year.

Now to the relief of the business elite, moguls and tycoons, a more compassionate, understanding, forgiving and business-friendly President has emerged during the night of feasting to welcome the “monsters” into his dining hall. Hopefully he warned them to share their vast wealth and invest in the poorer regions of the Philippines and to pay just wages.

The poor are so poor some trade in small amounts of drugs but the drug barons benefit and are untouchable. Other poor people sell their children to the cybersex operators connected to the internet through the PLDT, Sun, Smart and Globe internet servers. These criminals send live images of children being sexually abused to foreign customers around the world and collect payment at Western Union and other money transfer stations.  

Child pornography and cyber-sex involving minors is a heinous crime against the person and dignity of the child. The Philippines is becoming a leading source of these illegal images and children are being abused in the making and distribution of them. The child porn images are spread around the world through the Internet and the ISPs in every country that do not have filters and blocking technology are aiding and abetting these crimes against children.

If President Duterte is true to his word to challenge and bring the tycoons of the Philippine ruling elite to develop the country, he could start with Manny V. Pangilinan, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of PLDT, Suncellular and Smart. He and his company is bound by law to filter and block every pornography web site that carries child pornography. The 2009 Anti-child Porn Law is very clear and explicit. The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in 2014, through Memorandum Circular No. 01-01-2014, ordered ISPs to “install available technology, program or software that will block access or filter all websites carrying child pornography materials” within 120 days from the submission of a list of these solutions to the Inter-Agency Council Against Child Pornography (IACACP).

They have not complied. It has been announced in the media last week that only three pornography websites containing child images are now blocked. This is an insult to the law, the government National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and Secretary of the Cabinet Leoncio (Jun) Evasco, representative of President Duterte, and to whom the commissioners must report.  There are hundreds of child pornography websites in cyberspace. The Philippine ISPs must by law install total blocking software. But they defy the law and refuse to do it in the interests of profit-making and expanding their vast wealth at the expense of the abused children.      

In the Philippines the telephone companies are violating the law by not having these filters in place as demanded by the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 otherwise known as RA 9775. They have seemingly placed themselves above it and seem to have some government officials in their pockets. In addition to the Anti-child Pornography Law, they are also allegedly violating with impunity the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of 1995 or RA 7925 and Executive Order No. 546 issued in 1979.  The tycoons are now dining with the President hoping that he will overlook their crimes of ignoring the law and exploitation and aiding and abetting the abuse of vulnerable children. The president and cabinet secretary Jun Evasco will surely hold them to account and protect the Filipino children from this horrific heinous cybercrime of child sexual abuse.

The Good News is That Justice Has Been Done

The serial child sexual abuser Douglas Slade from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire was sentenced to 24 years in jail after he was extradited back to the UK and faced sexual abuse charges.

He was charged in court in Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines several times for abuse of children in his luxurious child sex den but was able to bribe his way out of all the charges allegedly with the help of corrupt police, court officials and bent lawyers. Slade admitted in an interview with a UK television channel that he paid lawyers to “fix” the cases.

Preda Foundation social workers and paralegal officers assisted the victims and are legal guardians for some of them with power of attorney. Slade has abused as many as 33 children living within half a kilometer of his house, which he built next to an elementary school and had a gate leading to the playground. He allegedly gave gifts to the school principal to allow the boys to come in his house where he abused them.

The Preda Foundation is working to file civil action cases in the UK against Slade to demand compensation for the degrading and human suffering and psychological damage that the children endure.

One boy reported, as reported by Simon Perry in his report in the Mail Online, that Slade threatened him and other victims with a gun if they or their parents told the police about the sexual abuse. Slade kept a firearm in his house. According to the report, Slade had video cameras fitted to the wall in both the living room and the bedroom. He would film his abuse and told Christian and the other boys he was selling the footage to friends over the Internet. “Mr. Douglas told us to do things to him and he told us we had to do it right as he told us to because it was all going on video,' he said.

When Slade’s computer broke down, he called in a technician to repair it. This technician saw the pictures of sexual abuse, knew it was indicative of a crime and reported it to police. He made copies so the police would have evidence to get a search warrant. The police raided the home with a search warrant and got the original material in a legal manner. However, in the Angeles City Court, Slade’s lawyers were able to say that the original procurement of the video were illegal and despite the evidence that the police got the same evidence legally, the case was dismissed despite the powerful evidence of the child rape themselves.

It was at this stage that the Preda director in conversation with visiting UK child protection officials brought the case of Slade to their attention. Soon, historic cases in the UK were revived with their help and the help of media and Slade was extradited.

The role of the Internet in distributing the images of child sexual abuse is vast. The Internet is an electronic digital communications tool that can be used for good or bad. The pedophiles and child abusers have got a powerful tool at their disposal to make and distribute the most horrific videos and images of child sexual assault.

That’s why making and distributing child porn is so dangerous and evil. Even children can have access to this dehumanizing and personality destructive material by accident. It can be sent to them by pedophiles grooming them to accept this as a “normal” form of human interaction. Sometimes, it works and the child is seduced. Others are psychologically affected in a negative way. When they view these images they have a negative view of adults as dangerous, threatening and abusive. It can destroy their trust in adults and their own parents and they become disturbed and rebellious. The world appears to them to be out to hurt and exploit them.

Parents must learn the dangers of unlimited access by children to the Internet and must protect their children against this digital poison in cyber space as they would protect them against a bottle of weed killer in the garden shed.

In most countries, it is a crime to access, download, view or possess child pornography. In the Philippines, the 2009 anti-child pornography law is strict and revolutionary in that it orders the internet server providers (ISPs) to filter and block child pornography passing to customers through their servers. Preda Foundation lobbied, advised and helped bring that provision to the law.

However Philippine government officials under past administrations have never insisted that the internet server providers (ISPs), mostly foreign-owned, follow and implement the law. They fear they will lose top paying customers and millions in profits.

Poverty is not the prime cause of child sexual abuse. It is the criminal behavior coming mostly from depraved and evil men who desire sex with children. Children especially hungry children are vulnerable to being lured and abused. Child sexual abuse and pornography thrives in a culture of cover-up and non-reporting of child abuse. This is what must change. We can prevent abuse and protect children by speaking the truth. 

The Good News is That Justice Has Been Done

The serial child sexual abuser Douglas Slade from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire was sentenced to 24 years in jail after he was extradited back to the UK and faced sexual abuse charges.

He was charged in court in Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines several times for abuse of children in his luxurious child sex den but was able to bribe his way out of all the charges allegedly with the help of corrupt police, court officials and bent lawyers. Slade admitted in an interview with a UK television channel that he paid lawyers to “fix” the cases.

Preda Foundation social workers and paralegal officers assisted the victims and are legal guardians for some of them with power of attorney. Slade has abused as many as 33 children living within half a kilometer of his house, which he built next to an elementary school and had a gate leading to the playground. He allegedly gave gifts to the school principal to allow the boys to come in his house where he abused them.

The Preda Foundation is working to file civil action cases in the UK against Slade to demand compensation for the degrading and human suffering and psychological damage that the children endure.

One boy reported, as reported by Simon Perry in his report in the Mail Online, that Slade threatened him and other victims with a gun if they or their parents told the police about the sexual abuse. Slade kept a firearm in his house. According to the report, Slade had video cameras fitted to the wall in both the living room and the bedroom. He would film his abuse and told Christian and the other boys he was selling the footage to friends over the Internet. “Mr. Douglas told us to do things to him and he told us we had to do it right as he told us to because it was all going on video,' he said.

When Slade’s computer broke down, he called in a technician to repair it. This technician saw the pictures of sexual abuse, knew it was indicative of a crime and reported it to police. He made copies so the police would have evidence to get a search warrant. The police raided the home with a search warrant and got the original material in a legal manner. However, in the Angeles City Court, Slade’s lawyers were able to say that the original procurement of the video were illegal and despite the evidence that the police got the same evidence legally, the case was dismissed despite the powerful evidence of the child rape themselves.

It was at this stage that the Preda director in conversation with visiting UK child protection officials brought the case of Slade to their attention. Soon, historic cases in the UK were revived with their help and the help of media and Slade was extradited.

The role of the Internet in distributing the images of child sexual abuse is vast. The Internet is an electronic digital communications tool that can be used for good or bad. The pedophiles and child abusers have got a powerful tool at their disposal to make and distribute the most horrific videos and images of child sexual assault.

That’s why making and distributing child porn is so dangerous and evil. Even children can have access to this dehumanizing and personality destructive material by accident. It can be sent to them by pedophiles grooming them to accept this as a “normal” form of human interaction. Sometimes, it works and the child is seduced. Others are psychologically affected in a negative way. When they view these images they have a negative view of adults as dangerous, threatening and abusive. It can destroy their trust in adults and their own parents and they become disturbed and rebellious. The world appears to them to be out to hurt and exploit them.

Parents must learn the dangers of unlimited access by children to the Internet and must protect their children against this digital poison in cyber space as they would protect them against a bottle of weed killer in the garden shed.

In most countries, it is a crime to access, download, view or possess child pornography. In the Philippines, the 2009 anti-child pornography law is strict and revolutionary in that it orders the internet server providers (ISPs) to filter and block child pornography passing to customers through their servers. Preda Foundation lobbied, advised and helped bring that provision to the law.

However Philippine government officials under past administrations have never insisted that the internet server providers (ISPs), mostly foreign-owned, follow and implement the law. They fear they will lose top paying customers and millions in profits.

Poverty is not the prime cause of child sexual abuse. It is the criminal behavior coming mostly from depraved and evil men who desire sex with children. Children especially hungry children are vulnerable to being lured and abused. Child sexual abuse and pornography thrives in a culture of cover-up and non-reporting of child abuse. This is what must change. We can prevent abuse and protect children by speaking the truth. 

The Good News is That Justice Has Been Done

The serial child sexual abuser Douglas Slade from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire was sentenced to 24 years in jail after he was extradited back to the UK and faced sexual abuse charges.

He was charged in court in Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines several times for abuse of children in his luxurious child sex den but was able to bribe his way out of all the charges allegedly with the help of corrupt police, court officials and bent lawyers. Slade admitted in an interview with a UK television channel that he paid lawyers to “fix” the cases.

Preda Foundation social workers and paralegal officers assisted the victims and are legal guardians for some of them with power of attorney. Slade has abused as many as 33 children living within half a kilometer of his house, which he built next to an elementary school and had a gate leading to the playground. He allegedly gave gifts to the school principal to allow the boys to come in his house where he abused them.

The Preda Foundation is working to file civil action cases in the UK against Slade to demand compensation for the degrading and human suffering and psychological damage that the children endure.

One boy reported, as reported by Simon Perry in his report in the Mail Online, that Slade threatened him and other victims with a gun if they or their parents told the police about the sexual abuse. Slade kept a firearm in his house. According to the report, Slade had video cameras fitted to the wall in both the living room and the bedroom. He would film his abuse and told Christian and the other boys he was selling the footage to friends over the Internet. “Mr. Douglas told us to do things to him and he told us we had to do it right as he told us to because it was all going on video,' he said.

When Slade’s computer broke down, he called in a technician to repair it. This technician saw the pictures of sexual abuse, knew it was indicative of a crime and reported it to police. He made copies so the police would have evidence to get a search warrant. The police raided the home with a search warrant and got the original material in a legal manner. However, in the Angeles City Court, Slade’s lawyers were able to say that the original procurement of the video were illegal and despite the evidence that the police got the same evidence legally, the case was dismissed despite the powerful evidence of the child rape themselves.

It was at this stage that the Preda director in conversation with visiting UK child protection officials brought the case of Slade to their attention. Soon, historic cases in the UK were revived with their help and the help of media and Slade was extradited.

The role of the Internet in distributing the images of child sexual abuse is vast. The Internet is an electronic digital communications tool that can be used for good or bad. The pedophiles and child abusers have got a powerful tool at their disposal to make and distribute the most horrific videos and images of child sexual assault.

That’s why making and distributing child porn is so dangerous and evil. Even children can have access to this dehumanizing and personality destructive material by accident. It can be sent to them by pedophiles grooming them to accept this as a “normal” form of human interaction. Sometimes, it works and the child is seduced. Others are psychologically affected in a negative way. When they view these images they have a negative view of adults as dangerous, threatening and abusive. It can destroy their trust in adults and their own parents and they become disturbed and rebellious. The world appears to them to be out to hurt and exploit them.

Parents must learn the dangers of unlimited access by children to the Internet and must protect their children against this digital poison in cyber space as they would protect them against a bottle of weed killer in the garden shed.

In most countries, it is a crime to access, download, view or possess child pornography. In the Philippines, the 2009 anti-child pornography law is strict and revolutionary in that it orders the internet server providers (ISPs) to filter and block child pornography passing to customers through their servers. Preda Foundation lobbied, advised and helped bring that provision to the law.

However Philippine government officials under past administrations have never insisted that the internet server providers (ISPs), mostly foreign-owned, follow and implement the law. They fear they will lose top paying customers and millions in profits.

Poverty is not the prime cause of child sexual abuse. It is the criminal behavior coming mostly from depraved and evil men who desire sex with children. Children especially hungry children are vulnerable to being lured and abused. Child sexual abuse and pornography thrives in a culture of cover-up and non-reporting of child abuse. This is what must change. We can prevent abuse and protect children by speaking the truth.