A lawmaker today moved to criminalize the operation of cybersex dens in the country imposing stiffer penalties, including a prison term of 30 years.
Rep. Carmelo Lazatin (1st District, Pampanga) has filed House Bill 1444 banning the operation of cybersex dens in the country.
Lazatin said HB1444 otherwise known as the “Anti-Cybersex Act” hopes to lessen the widespread incidence of prostitution and pornography in the Philippines that reaches every part of the globe through cyberspace.
Lazatin explained that with today’s rapid advancement of information and communication technology through the World Wide Web, it is alarming to note that even pornography and prostitution have tapped a new channel in a form popularly known as cybersex.
Lazatin said that with the proliferation of these operations, it is no longer bearable to regulate them on the basis of fairly loose guidelines.
“Unless rigid measures are founded against these abuses, society will bear the social costs since proliferation of obscene and pornographic materials and rampant exhibition of lewd shows in our midst have threatened the moral fibers of our society,” Lazatin added.
According to Lazatin, it is indeed upsetting that with the internet technology now accessible to minors; its impact on the moral fiber of society is unimaginable.
“Amidst all of these are the youth who are the heaviest users and primary audience of mass media. If left unrepressed, these obscene practices will impose their detrimental effects psychologically, morally and physically,” Lazatin stressed.
Lazatin said there is an urgent need to intensify the campaign against cybersex given the numerous studies that point out to a higher correlation of exposure to pornography, prostitution and the incidence of sex crimes.
Under the proposed measure, a person can be criminally liable if he commits obscene acts through live sex shows whose participants are either heterosexual or homosexual copulate or perform normal sexual acts, oral and anal and through the depiction or description of sex mixed with sacrileges, and through the showing of explicit pictures or scenes depicting or describing sex acts with other children or with adults.
The bill prohibits the use of explicit pictures, scenes or exhibitions depicting or describing homosexual and lesbian acts, heterosexual acts, masturbation including the practice of autoerotism, excretion such as urination and edema materials, sadomasochistic sex that involves whippings, beatings, slashing and other forms of physical injuries, bestiality, necrophilia, bondage and sex and the lewd depiction and description of sexual paraphernalia such as life-sized rubber dolls, dildos, artificial sex organs, vibrators or any sex gadgets and coercion, intimidation or fraudulent induction of a person into performing indecent acts or participating in the operation of cybersex whether as sex worker, pimp, promoter, financier, computer specialist and administrative employees.
Also prohibited under this measure lewd, licentious, libidinous, lustful depiction or description of the body as genitals, pubic region, buttocks, female breast below a point immediately above the top of the areola, human male genitals in discernibly turgid state, human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation and fondling erotic touching of human genitals, pubic region, buttocks, female breast and the employment of minors in the operation of cybersex.
The bill provides penalties ranging from P250,000 to P1million and imprisonment of not more than 30 years.
