Father Shay Cullen
For most parents, one of their greatest worries is losing their children, mind and soul, to online sex predators who lure them into dangerous and unhealthy relationships. They contact these children on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and secretly groom them for illegal sexual activities.
When worried parents see their mobile phone-addicted children and question them, they are likely to be met with resistance and even hostility. That is when ties between parents and children begin to break. In Australia, The Online Safety Amendment [Social Media Minimum Age] Act 2024, was passed in November 2024 restricting people younger than 16 from using such platforms.
Telecommunications corporations [telcos] and Internet service providers [in the Philippines] have been enabling online child sexual abuse because they do not install blocking software despite Republic Act 11930 requiring them to do so. When some telco tycoons and government officials get into a mutually beneficial relationship, chances are the law will not be enforced. Our telecommunications commission is a toothless tiger. The result? Children are allowed to be abused on the Internet, while telcos— and their investors and officers— rake in the profits.
Child safety depends on these telco owners and operators having a moral conscience and spiritual values, which only few of them seem to have. They are driven more by profit than concern for child safety.
When worried parents see their mobile phone-addicted children and question them, they are likely to be met with resistance and even hostility. That is when ties between parents and children begin to break
The battleground is now moving to manufacturers of mobile phones and laptops, and to child-protecting legislators. Cybersecurity company SafeToNet has developed and tested software that is artificial intelligence [AI]-taught. It can be installed in a computer or mobile phone’s operating system. It is capable of detecting and blocking child sexual abuse material, no matter where it comes from, be it from any individual or social media platform.
SafeToNet has made it clear the software is not capable of recording or storing data, or monitoring any normal content or identifying the owner. It just blocks child abuse content from the Internet. A strong law mandating its implementation by manufacturers will have to be fought for, passed and enforced.
Reluctance to install such software may indicate the objector wants to permit and view child sexual abuse content. This puts telcos on the spot. Do they want child-safe devices or not? If the new mobile phone service being touted by United States president, Donald Trump, is to have such software installed, it would likely pass into law.
Teenagers and younger children are currently without protection and are targets for online abuse, including grooming for, and the livestreaming of sex abuse acts. Some perpetrators are the children’s own relatives who sell the sex shows to foreign customers. The sextortion of teenagers is increasing and a number have killed themselves over it.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
https://www.Facebook.com/CFM-Gifted-to-give-101039001847033
Other forms of online criminal abuse include adults contacting children and talking to them about sexual behaviour, asking for or sending nude photographs or videos of themselves, and persuading children to expose themselves.
SafeToNet has made it clear the software is not capable of recording or storing data, or monitoring any normal content or identifying the owner. It just blocks child abuse content from the Internet. A strong law mandating its implementation by manufacturers will have to be fought for, passed and enforced
This was what happened to 17-year-old Jay, in Michigan. He was contacted through Instagram by a person posing as a potential girlfriend. He responded and began sharing sexually explicit photos with this person. Soon, he received text messages demanding that he send money or else the compromising photos and videos he shared would be posted on social media and sent to his family, friends and teachers.
It was clearly a sextortion scam, and the Nigeria-based criminals demanded money that he could not pay. They increased the pressure and goaded him to go ahead and commit suicide, which he did. A beautiful young life extinguished by the mockery and greed of criminals. Hundreds of teenagers kill themselves every year because of such scams. The three people who blackmailed Jay were identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and extradited to the US, and are now serving long prison sentences.
Reluctance to install such software may indicate the objector wants to permit and view child sexual abuse content. This puts telcos on the spot. Do they want child-safe devices or not?
A Catholic priest, Father Karole Reward Israel, was stripped of his faculties and is in prison and on trial in Tuguegarao, Cagayan province, for repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl. She said he secretly videotaped the crimes and threatened to send the images to her family and friends, as well as post these on social media, if she reported the abuse and resisted him. She eventually told friends about it and he was arrested. He claimed it was all consensual.
In a report, the United Nations Children’s Fund said that “[i]n 2021 alone, two million children in the Philippines were subjected to online sexual abuse and exploitation. Children reported that they experienced grooming and received offers of gifts or money in exchange for sexual acts. Some were threatened or blackmailed to engage in sexual acts. Due to stigma, disclosure is disproportionately low—despite various reporting channels.”
Despite the advocacy of concerned agencies and nongovernmental organisations, very few children are actually rescued from online sexual abusers and referred to therapeutic homes for protection and healing. The government has few shelters and has won few convictions for them. The abusers are mostly family members or relatives.
Few of these abusers are caught and convicted. From 1996, the children at the Preda Foundation’s therapeutic home for trafficked, sexually abused children and victims of online sexual exploitation won an average of 10 convictions a year. By 2020, that number rose to 20.
In 2024, Preda children won 27 convictions. As of June 15, 10 convictions were won, most of them in the Family Court of Zambales, presided over by Judge Maribel Mariano Beltran, and Family Court of Olongapo City, presided over by Judge Gemma Theresa Hilario-Logronio. The children are ably represented in court by public prosecutors in Zambales and Olongapo City.
Thanks to them, the abusers received mostly life sentences.
