The Vulnerability Of Child Victims Of Sexual Abuse

 

The greatest hurt when a child is sexually abused is the fear, helplessness and total betrayal of the vulnerable, trusting child by an adult in whom he/she trusts and admires. Most sexual abusers in any society are the biological fathers, the live-in partner of the mother or someone the child trusts. Children are emotionally and psychologically vulnerable because of their dependency on adults for every human need.

One in every four children is a victim of sexual abuse before they reach adulthood. This ought to be a shocking and troubling truth to most people more than a statistic. Child victims- boys and girls- are deeply hurt and traumatized by the abuse. They bury this hurt and pain, anger and frustration within them. They can become depressed, silent, withdrawn and lose interest in school, studies and playing and are not normal, happy children unless they get deep, healing emotional release therapy.

As much as ninety percent of cases of abuse are not reported to anyone. In most jurisdictions in the developed countries, an estimated 10 percent are reported to a trusted person or authorities who do nothing about it. Of the 10 percent reported, only five percent is likely to get to court and only one to two percent get a conviction depending on the jurisdiction. The world is a pedophile paradise where the offenders roam free to abuse children with impunity.

Victims of sexual abuse have to live with the memory, the secret and pain their whole lives. They are not empowered and self-confident and have not been trained and taught to stand up for themselves and be outspoken against acts of abuse. These vulnerable and disempowered children are frequently dominated and controlled by their parents or relatives who may be unsupportive and verbally abuse them. They lack self-confidence and trust in the adults they know. They feel estranged, lonely and unloved. They are the most vulnerable and easily targeted by a relative, neighbor or friendly stranger who sexually abuse them.

The parents may have failed to have a strong bonding relationship with their child and failed to encourage them to be open, extrovert and tell all. So they don’t fully trust their parent and hide the abuse. Many children often have a distant nervous relationship with their parents who may be strict and tend to blame their child for small childish misbehaviors. This causes a trust gap, a fear of being blamed. When children are taught to be meek, mild, obedient, submissive, docile, and told not to talk about private matters and never talk about sex with their parents, they are seriously weakened and endangered.

The traditional sayings that promote a culture of silence are “Silence is golden” and “Children can be seen but not heard.” You might say that some societies conspire to keep children silent. Children can know so much about the secrets of their parents, relative or neighbors. Ignorant and misguided parents create a pedophile’s wonderland of multiple child abuse.
These docile and timid children are afraid. They lack trust in adults and are afraid to complain against other adults when they suffer acts of abuse. They believe they will not be believed and the parent will be angry if they blame someone who abused them. Many parents don’t believe their children.

“What did you say? Your uncle Bert would never do such a thing, don’t you dare say that again, you are lying,” they might say. Parents want their children to believe that parents are near perfect. Rarely will a parent admit to their child that they made a mistake. To have an open trusting child, parents need to be trusting of their children, give support, encourage, affirm, praise, reenforce and have positive interaction with them. They ought join their children in play, sports, be a trustworthy friend to them at every opportunity.

A true happy friendship between parents and their children is the kind of love that will ensure the children will have trust, openness and confidence to immediately share news about good and bad happenings in their lives. When they know of physical or sexual abuse to themselves or others, they will run and tell and get help.

Parents and guardians must listen attentively with full attention to their children daily, talk with them, and teach about ‘good and bad touches.” They must train them in “safe-craft,” to be street smart, to know that it is not a perfect innocent world and that there are good and bad people, and some might try to harm them. They must be taught to run away and report any attempt of bad touches.

Parents should be guarding their children against the opportunistic pedophile like minding and guarding their children while in traffic. To protect, guard them and never get angry or scold their children. Parents have to be mindful and alert to this constant danger of ever-present pedophiles in their community. They must keep their children close to them at all times and guarded by a female family member trained to watch for predators or strangers coming close and text for help at a suspicious situation.
Berry,13 years-old, was living with her grandmother in a poor hovel. She was grabbed by a neighbor and taken to his house where he raped her. He threatened to kill her and her grandmother if she told anyone. Stunned with fear and dread, she buried the pain and told no one.

Months later, she was approached by a nice, kindly man of about 34 years of age. He promised Berry food and money and invited 13-year old Berry to his house a few kilometers away. She was persuaded to stay overnight and that night she was sexually abused. He persuaded her that he loved her and would be her protector and friend and promised her gifts. She was persuaded by his promises and stayed. A few weeks later, her grandmother found her and she was rescued by the authorities and brought to the Preda Foundation Home for abused children where she is recovering, finding her sense of worth, dignity and being empowered day by day. Berry has realized how she was exploited and abused and will file criminal charges against her abusers with the help of the Preda paralegal officer. Berry is just one of hundreds of thousands of children that are abused every day.

We have to teach children to protect themselves, tell of any attempted acts of abuse or abuse itself. No one must remain silent for that is complicity. We must act to heal the child and bring the abusers to justice. Report child abuse in confidentiality to Preda at +63 9175324453.

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 Rape of Innocence

Child protection is one of the most urgent and serious responsibilities of parents, children, the community and government. We celebrate the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child this November. It establishes the right of every child to a life of peace and security, dignity, fulfilled needs, a happy family, education, freedom, protection from abuse and poverty, right to health, justice and play and happiness. The Convention binds all member nations to respect and implement the rights of the child and act in the best interests of the child.

Before the Convention, the awareness and recognition that the child is the most vulnerable and  needy and the extent of child sexual abuse was unrecognized by the general public. It was the great secret never to be talked about, to be hidden like a pestilence behind closed doors. In many societies, it still is. Reporting of child sexual abuse is improving slowly but has a long way to go. It was and is taboo for many. It is the unspoken evil that, like a monster, would haunt anyone who talked about it. The best way to deal with child sexual abuse, rape and sex slavery was to bury it away and cover it up. Perhaps paedophilia was and is so prevalent that society thought it of little consequence and still does. The paedophiles were and are in positions of power and can influence and condition the rest of society to remain silent. That is why the Convention is so important.

There is now an awakening in society. Many nations have new strict laws and awareness. Children were taught to remain silent and never complain against adults even if they were abused. We heard the old strict caution given to children, “Silence is golden,” “Children could be seen but never heard.” Brave and courageous are the children that come forward and protest and complain. The #MeToo movement creates an environment where speaking out is encouraged. Why has it taken so long? Yet, it is only a tip of a great iceberg of silence that remains, freezing most in fear and shame. Our task is to warm the climate and help them unfreeze.

Millions of people went through school and college and were never warned against child sexual abuse being so prevalent. The Ten Commandments do not explicitly condemn it. Jesus of Nazareth did and placed children as the most important in the Kingdom and said abusers should be cast into the sea with a millstone tied around their necks (Matthew 18:1-7). He had it right and took a strong clear position on it.  But that was ignored by Church leaders over the ages. Not surprising then that clerical sexual abuse of children was and is such a frequent crime that it was ignored and covered up. We have to stand against it and expose it everywhere.

A new educational curriculum in California will teach young children about their bodies and how to protect themselves. Some parents reject such education as if children should not know they can be hurt and abused and must report it. They can and ought to be taught to do so. The LA Times reported, “Roughly 200 protesters showed up outside the state Capitol on Wednesday, some with their children in tow, holding signs that read “No to Explicit Sex Ed” and “Too Much Too, Soon.”

People in less progressive societies do not teach their children to resist abuse and report it. Some consider it even “permissible” for a man to do it. Paedophiles love the fear and silence that surrounds child abuse. It allows abuse with impunity. In India, a child is raped every 15 minutes.

In the Philippines, a child or woman is raped every 75 minutes and little is done to challenge the culture of silence. About 80 percent or 32,000,000 children suffer from violence. Seven million of these children between the ages of 10 to 18 are sexually abused every year. Twenty percent or 1.4 million are under six years old. Boys are more likely to be raped, according to a UNICEF study. They will grow up with anger and hatred in their hearts and be more prone to be violent in their family or society and turn to crime and insurrection.

What do small children know and say about it? If given a chance, they will tell the powerful truth. In a recent court case in Olongapo City, a three-year old girl and her six-year old sister, under the protection and care of the Preda Foundation, testified against their biological father. She clearly told the court what happened. “He poked his fingers into my “pepe” (vagina).Then her six-year old sister testified clearly and said she saw the rape happening and tried to pull her father off her little sister to no avail.

The judge, Judge Gemma Theresa B.Hilario-Logronio, said in her decision that the children were clear and consistent in their testimony. The children’s father was convicted to life in prison. This is a strong fearless judge that applies the law based on the clear testimony of the witnesses and with supporting medical evidence. A few weeks ago, she convicted another rapist, a live-in partner of the mother of a 13-year old child cared for by the Preda Foundation, and gave two sentences of life in prison.

Justice is a powerful healing for victims of sexual abuse and just enlightened judges are an essential part of the healing process. We have to create an environment where children are empowered to come forward and tell their ordeal without fear, to a welcoming and supportive court and community. Creating this is the duty and moral obligation of all of us.

Human Trafficking: A Scourge On Humanity

Human trafficking and child sexual abuse is still alive and thriving in the Philippines. Online sexual abuse of children is everywhere, it seems, and more has to be done by the telecommunication corporations to stop it. That’s why this heinous crime against small children to satisfy the sexual lust of foreign pedophiles is so abhorrent. Shame on all who allow it to happen with impunity. The Philippines has become the hub for such crimes. The National Bureau of Investigations (NBI) in Olongapo and from Manila has rescued 18 women and children and arrested three human traffickers recently.

In Angeles City this week, two children were rescued and two pimps, both minors, were arrested and turned over to the social workers of Angeles City. A US national, Nicholas Pyant, was arrested by the Philippine National Police in a room with children and should be charged with sexual assault and rape of young children. Pyant was under surveillance for weeks and is allegedly a known child predator.

In Barrio Baretto, Olongapo City minors are brought to sex hotels to be sold as sex slaves to customers. They are a hub for spreading the coronavirus and human trafficking. The sex industry exists for the sexual gratification of foreign sex tourists and rich locals and earns huge profits for the foreign and local owners of the sex bars and hotels.

The social workers of the Preda Foundation are very active in intelligence gathering and provided vital information and assisted in the recent rescue of the trafficked women and minors in the Barretto night club district. The four minors were referred to the Preda Home for Girls where they are safe from the sex mafia and the families of the human traffickers. At the Preda home, they receive full support, affirmation, counselling, emotional release therapy and education and value formation to prepare them to have a normal, happy life. You can view life in the Preda Homes on Preda Foundation Youtube channel https://youtu.be/G0fFNmHSYic

The Preda home will assist the minors in bringing charges against their abusers and traffickers. Together, we win several convictions of traffickers and child rapists every year. In 2018, we had 18 convictions. In 2019 we helped the children win 20 convictions leading to life sentences. This year 2020, 13 convictions have been won so far. There would be more but due to the pandemic the courts were closed.

Fighting for justice is a very important healing therapy for the children to get justice and to testify in court what the abusers did to them. Most victims/survivors are teenagers. Some are only three years old and six-year-old. They can then have a happy, secure life knowing that their traffickers and rapists are behind bars and can abuse no more children. Some of the teenage children victims of human trafficking also want to be advocates for children’s rights and to speak out as is their right of free expression. They volunteer and sign on to be child rights advocates, a brave and courageous action to take. While we adults do everything to protect their identity, we cannot stop them from exercising their human and civil rights to speak out against human trafficking and advocate children’s rights.The #MeToo movement is a way for women and children to experience freedom from abuse and to fight for justice and many young survivors want to be part of it.

It is adults that allow the sexual exploitation of children in the first place.The horrific child sex abuse business that is a scourge today in the Philippines is due to the former presence of the US Naval Base at Subic Bay, Olongapo City. Thousands of women and children were exploited and abused in hundreds of sex bars catering to the US Navy personnel. It was a wonderland of sex fantasy and abuse. Pedophiles flocked there and the sex mafia systematically and efficiently allowed them to sexually exploit, rape and abuse children. The government allowed and promoted it and the rich made millions of dollars.

In 1983, I discovered a child sex abuse syndicate selling children as young as nine years old to US sailors. I broke that story in the media and instead of being recognized for taking a stand for justice and truth and child protection, I was vilified by local government officials at the time and I was brought to trial at the Bureau of Immigration to be deported. The charge was that my child protection work and writing was bringing Olongapo City and its officials into disrepute. They felt I was blaming them for the child sex industry. They denied all responsibility despite a high profile military court case in Guam that brought a US officer to trial for child sexual abuse in Olongapo City. A sad state of affairs indeed.

That’s how journalists and child rights campaigners fighting for the dignity of the Filipinos were dealt with. However, I won my case, was found innocent and continued my work protecting human rights from my base in the Preda Foundation. When the city officials said they would close the Preda home for children, I said it would be better to close the US Naval Base. An idea was born and I started a “Life after the Bases” campaign to close the US military bases and convert them to civilian economic zones. It was amazing then how many people, in the Catholic Philippines, were hostile and negative to that vision of hope and help.

However, against all opposition, I promoted that idea and it caught on and a coalition of civil society members was formed that eventually persuaded the Philippine Senate to vote against the continuation of the US military bases. The conversion plan I formulated was eventually implemented and Subic Bay is now a thriving industrial area giving jobs with dignity to thousands of Filipinos. Human trafficking never really ceased and years later it began to make a comeback as tourism was promoted. So, today we are still fighting this scourge against humanity and protecting Filipino children.

Some Very Uncomfortable Truths

There are some very uncomfortable truths about ourselves that we humans don’t want to hear, to think about or to acknowledge or confront. Most of us have been conditioned to studiously ignore or deny the harsh reality before us or to believe without reflection the most outlandish and ludicrous lies.

Why can social evil, government corruption and oppression, state violence go unchecked, hardly questioned and a sense of national approval ignores the violations of human rights and justice? Besides, the silence and cover-up of widespread, unchecked human trafficking and child sexual abuse? 

 

We can speculate that manipulative forces in society welcome and promote such attitudes of collective silence, docility, moral decay, hypocrisy and social ignorance. They promote among the people the belief that it is okay to be quite subservient and uninvolved. To be an advocate for human rights and social justice is, they say, unacceptable and anti-government, even subversive.

 

Many people are lulled by a materialistic celebrity show-biz oriented society into a selfish egotistic life, having little concern for others and do not get involved in issues of social justice. Fear is also a factor in dulling the mind and blocking rebellious thoughts of those victimized, marginalized and oppressed. Fear of retaliation and punishment curbs the desire to protest injustice and oppression.

 

Death squads can raid a shanty town and murder several suspects and the neighbours, the community and the Church let it pass without outcry, protest and a sense of horror. It is the way things are, they say. Christianity is a way of life where people serve and help each other no matter their status in life. It puts into practice what Jesus of Nazareth taught- that goodness and truth and love will overcome evil and oppression and injustice, that we ought to love each other and never kill and exploit. That the children are the most important in society. That everyone has spiritual and inalienable rights, dignity, respect and that justice and equality imbue the ideal community. All are called to serve and share and all be free to be fully human free from fear, want and hunger.

 

Thousands of dedicated and committed true Christians risk their lives pursuing and upholding these values and have been murdered, incarcerated, bullied and beaten. These true Christians are working for social justice and living out the idealistic values of solidarity with the poor and the oppressed. They protect and get justice for the abused and the exploited children. They fight evil and save the trafficked victims without seeking reward, and like Jesus of Nazareth, are willing to die for their values.

 

But large segments of the institutional Catholic Church have arguably lost many of these values and fail to practice them. Parts of the institutional Church are ultra conservative and silent to child abuse and human rights violations. They ignore the shredding of human dignity and the violation of life values as thousands are oppressed, killed and disappeared. Child sexual abuse is denied, concealed, covered up and lied about.

 

The Philippines has a population of 110 million. Forty million are children. About 80 percent or 32 million children suffer from violence. Seven million of these children between the ages of 10 to 18 are sexually abused every year. Twenty percent or 1.4 million are under 6 years old. While these statistics are shocking, many of the institutional Church leaders are sinfully silent.

 

The prophetic voice to champion the abused and exploited is seldom heard. This silence has to be constantly challenged and reform must come to awaken and activate the clergy and the lay people. The true Christians work for a better society based on the belief in goodness, truth and justice and protect the children and fight for human rights.

 

Every day close to 538 babies are born to teenagers mostly 15-16 years of age, many are victims of rape. That is 196,370 babies born a year. Most are abandoned by their fathers and live-partners of the mothers. Seven million of these children between the ages of 10 to 18 are sexually abused every year and Church people have not challenged child sexual abuse in the Church itself, let alone in society.

 

There is the complacent attitude that permeates society, too. It inculcates a sense of apathy and indifference to the news of natural disasters or human rights violations and does little to challenge and change the situation of extensive child sexual abuse, human trafficking and sex slavery and on-line child abuse. The silence and inaction is approval of the sex industry. The government grants them permits to operate and allows the wrongdoing to propagate, spread and become accepted and imbedded in the unconscious way of life of millions.

 

Child sexual abuse is still considered by many as an unfortunate, unchangeable human weakness to be tolerated and treated lightly and some say abuse should not be reported or complained about. “Children may be seen but never heard”, “Silence is golden,” we were taught.

 

How wrong this is. Child abuse is a heinous dastardly crime. Not everyone accepts that truth, until they or their children are sexually assaulted. Even then, there are mothers who look the other way when their husband or partner sexually abuse their daughters. Silence in families is also abuse.

 

The case of the 13-year-old, Angel (not her real name) a child that the Preda Foundation social workers rescued from the rapist Marve Rada. He was the live-in partner of the child’s mother. She would not believe Angel’s story of constant sexual abuse. Instead, the mother protected the rapist. It happened many times. The child recovered with the help of the Preda Emotional Expression Therapy and lived happily and safe in the Preda Children’s Home. (View life in the home at https://youtu.be/G0fFNmHSYic)

 

Angel was empowered and testified in court, firmly, consistently, in a trustworthy manner, was coherent, spontaneous, logical and convincingly, so said Judge Gemma Theresa B. Hilario-Lagronio, and then convicted and sentenced Marve Rada to life in prison without parole. On two other charges, he was sentenced to 17 years for two other acts of abuse. Judge Lagronio was meticulous in considering the evidence and is a true champion of justice for children.

Are PLDT and Globe Enabling the Transmission of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children?

The Internet Server Providers (ISP's) such as PLDT and Globe in the Philippines and thousands around the world must be challenged and held accountable for allegedly failing to block effectively, with the latest AI enabled software, the transmission of child pornography and the heinous crime of online sexual exploitation of children live-streamed to paying pedophiles around the world. Child abuse and pornography is an international crime and needs a local and international response. Globe is planning to expand into Europe, but we will campaign against it if there is no change.

The Philippines has been named as the world hot spot for child pornography and online sexual exploitation of children. Only a few weeks ago 13 children more were rescued from cyber-crime dens in Biliran. Home for under investigated clerical sexual abuse, where a US priest, Kenneth Pius Hendricks and others sexually abused children for decades.   

The ISPs must be held accountable for failing to obey and fully respect the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 otherwise known as Republic Act 9775 by installing up-to-date effective blocking software in their servers. This is the only effective answer to the rampant widespread child pornography “pandemic” sweeping the Philippines and the world.  

Globe informed me that after eleven years of failing to comply with the law they installed in 2017 DNS software to block websites that they know or contain child porn and said they depend on the Department of Justice to inform them of such websites. This is most likely a category based and very simple and cheap software. It is most likely to be very ineffective since there are daily streams of child porn passing through Globe servers and those of PLDT. The illegal and horrific images of little children being sexually abused live on the internet is capable of reaching the computers, tablets, and smart phones of Filipinos and pedophiles abroad as detected by law international enforcement.

As Globe tells me there is new child porn website to quickly replace the old. That’s because they have outdated ineffective cheap DNS software. What they should have, and they know it is Real time; Artificial Intelligence (AI) based software. This continues to crawl the worldwide internet for signals and sites promoting child porn and live streaming. It detects instantly and continues to update in real time by machine learning using Artificial Intelligence (AI). No human employees needed, it is strong, and lives forever once installed as a High-Tech expert from Zyalin Software Company informed me since they design such effective software.

PLDT/Smart responds and informs me that to meet their requirements under the RA 9775, 2009 law where they are required to install software to block child pornography, but have not done so for eleven years,  said they are proposing a solution to Government to act, not them. “We have been suggesting that the government consider the use of a technology solution developed by Microsoft for this purpose”. Also they said in a letter to me: “For example, at this point, it is not possible for ISPs to selectively block bad content being live-streamed via global internet platforms. If Philippine ISPs attempt to do this, the entire global internet platform will be blocked”. This is totally wrong as companies with powerful AI blocking software can do it.

PLDT/Smart and Globe can stop the horrible sex crimes against children and prevent them from happening. They must obey the law and install the latest effective blocking filters. However why do they not have the latest most effective child porn blocking software? Because it will slow down their Network, that’s why. Because customers will have to wait a few seconds longer to connect and might switch to a rival ISP.  Really it is about greed and money not about children being raped and abused over the ISPs servers.  Perhaps, they have some sweetheart deal with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to ignore the law and pay a small fine for not complying.

If President Rodrigo Duterte is the strong-minded, iron-fisted champion of law and order and child protection, to save the nation he will act bravely and decisively order the ISPs like PLDT/Smart and Globe to obey RA 9775 the Anti-Child Pornography Law of 2009. I believe that he is already planning to do this.

Republic Act 9557, under Section 9, says: “The duties of Internet Server Providers (ISP) to monitor the content passing through their servers notify the police of illegal content and provide the authorities the particulars of users who gained or attempted to gain access to an Internet address which contains any form of child pornography.  All ISPs shall install available technology, program or software to ensure access to or transmittal of any form of child pornography will be blocked or filtered.”

The Cyber-crime Prevention Act of 2012 otherwise known as Republic Act 10175 also bans cybersex and child pornography, among other things. President Rodrigo Duterte can increase his huge popularity, now at 72 percent, if he will recommend a swift amendment to the law that will increase the penalty to the ISPs for non-compliance to ten million pesos a day until they fully comply with the law and install the most effective efficient child porn AI based blocking software. The fines paid can be for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to help child victims. The law can back-fine the ISPs for violating the law for 11 years, at a million a day.

As you read this, thousands of young Filipinos are exposed to viewing, damaging, disturbing and psychologically hurtful content passed through the ISP servers on the Internet. These are illegal graphic images on home-made videos of young children- girls and boys- being sexually raped and abused. Your child could be viewing these terrible videos and pictures without your knowledge. You can be sure they won’t tell you and you will never know but might notice disturbing changes in their personality and character.

You might think it is due to drugs but now think- child pornography. Their teenage peers download them and share them through the Internet enabled by the ISPs. Some teenagers also make child pornography videos of their own sexual abuse of young girls and boys and share them with classmates or gang-mates or upload them on YouTube. They extort sexual favors and money from underage victims by threatening to post the videos. A young uncle of two small children abused them and uploaded the child sexual abuse on Youtube possibly through Globe or PLDT or their subsidiary. He is now charged with child abuse and cybersex abuse of children. Hundreds of children are sexually abused daily and The ISP's go free, for now.

This online sexual exploitation of children through the ISPs must change. Globe and PLDT/Smart must obey the RA 9775 law. Every day, more children are sexually abused and damaged and it could be your child. It is time to act and hold the ISPs accountable for eleven years of disobeying the law and allowing thousands of acts of abuse over their servers.