Measures should be in place to further tighten ‘strong’ laws in a bid to curb online sexual exploitation of children, a legal envoy disclosed.
Alexander Gordon of United States Embassy Manila said that he is impressed by the Philippines’ commitment in fighting against child exploitation through human trafficking and cyber pornography, as provided in the Republic Act No. 9208 or the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 and the Republic Act No. 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009.
“Legislation in the Philippines is very strong. There are certain statures and violations automatically gets a life sentence. It would be fantastic if we had that in the US,” Gordon said.
He then cited that the weakest point in enforcing it is the conviction of the perpetrators, which takes a long process.
Gordon is one of the speakers on Friday during the Philippine International Cybersecurity Conference (PICC), organized by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) at the Grand Regal Hotel.
He also addressed concerns of some reported cases in the country wherein the parents of the child are the perpetrators themselves in allowing their child to be involved in pornography.
One of the rationalizations as to why states that it is better of them handling them to do pornography through cyberchat than handing them over to other perpetrators.
“That is not an excuse, that is not a reasonable excuse to conduct such crime,” Gordon said.
He added, “What makes it even sadder is that the mother themselves are allowing it.”
In a recently conducted US State Department 2018 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, the Philippines retained its Tier 1 status in meeting the United States’ minimum standards against human trafficking for the third year in a row.
Under the TIP report, countries in Tier 1 are those that fully comply with the minimum standards of the US’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).
However, in a report by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the country continues to be one of the top global source of child pornography.
UNICEF said 80% of Filipino children are at risk of online sexual abuse.
