In recent years alone, there have been several cases involving adults coercing children to perform sex acts in front of a Web camera.
The depraved scenes are shown to pedophiles all over the world. What’s scary is that these cybersex shows featuring kids are now mostly conducted in homes and operated by the kids’ family members rather than large crime syndicates.
The stories that get reported are horrifying enough.
– Mother who used kids in cybersex raket was also a past cybersex performer (August 2014)
– Aunt and grandmother of kids are suspects in cybersex operation (June 2015)
– Woman arrested for forcing her child to engage in cybersex (October 2015)
– Couple in Cebu arrested for using kid in cybersex show (December 2015)
– Mother who sold her 3 underage kids online arrested (April 2016)
In his article in The Guardian entitled “How child sexual abuse became a family business in the Philippines,” Oliver Holmes noted: “The United Nations says, there are tens of thousands of children believed to be involved in a rapidly expanding local child abuse industry already worth US$1 billion. In some areas, entire communities live off the business, abetted by increasing internet speeds, advancing cameraphone technology, and growing ease of money transfers across borders.”
Indeed, Holmes cited the observation of Stephanie McCourt, the south-east Asia liaison officer for the UK’s National Crime Agency, who pointed out that “the Philippines provided a perfect storm to allow the crime to develop, with its entrenched poverty and high level of internet access for a developing country.” Moreover, McCourt said that foreign pedophiles were also drawn to the country because of the people’s knowledge of the English language.
Referring to the adults who advertise kids in cybersex shows, McCourt explained, “They can communicate with offenders. After we’d been scratching our heads, the penny dropped. That’s not to say that it won’t move to other countries … There is probably a huge amount we don’t know.”
Hiding behind technology
As technology advanced, the purveyors of child cybersex have also been harder to catch. “Perpetrators used to download photos and videos to their hard drives, providing authorities with a virtual paper trail and usable evidence. Now, criminals have found anonymity in encrypted live-streaming programs,” Holmes wrote.
Moreover, the conversations between pimps and pedophiles are live and encrypted through online communication applications such as Skype, and payment is made by anonymous wire transfers.
Patterns of abuse
Pedophiles online pat roughly US$5 to US$200 a show, depending on what sort of acts they want the kid or kids to perform.
Holmes observed that in many cases, Filipino kids “are made to perform around the clock, with morning live-streams catering to Europeans and Americans, and later in the day, an Australian-based clientele.”
As such, the number of ongoing criminal cases involving cybersex or the live-streaming of sex acts with children as performers in the Philippines is rising, from 57 in 2013, growing to 89 in 2014, and up to 167 in 2015.
These numbers are believed to be just a fraction of the real horrifying statistics. One of the challenges to catching the operators of cybersex feasturing kids is the Philippines’ own strong privacy laws make convictions hard to achieve.
Holmes explained: “The anti-wiretapping act means evidence collected from computers – even video footage of the abuse – cannot always be used in court. And a police offer can only get permission for a warrant if they have personal knowledge of the abuse.”
In order to charge the adults who are pimping out kids, an undercover agent has to be asked to confirm that the parents were abusing their children.
As Lotta Sylwander — the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) representative to the Philippines who is leading the online safety campaign — said, “Children will do anything for their parents. We need to raise awareness and vigilance of this issue, so that parents and others understand that child abuse – in any form – is not just morally wrong, it is also extremely harmful to children’s health and development.”
However, Sylwander admitted, “Unfortunately, at the moment the situation is getting worse, not better.”
International cooperation needed
To catch abusers, the Philippines needs help from foreign agencies.
There’s the Virtual Global Taskforce, a partnership of international law enforcement agencies and Interpol, which has dedicated 2016 to combatting the live-streaming of child abuse.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) is also set to launch a campaign to educate young people about the risks of the online world.
Moreover, Filipinos themselves have to be more vigilant about the matter and proactive about intervening when kids are in danger from their own families.
Reader Interactions