Program vs. human trafficking pushed

by Macon Ramos-Araneta, Manila Standard Today, 14 Feb 2020

To help protect Filipino children and youth from online sexual exploitation of children, Senator Win Gatchalian underscored the need for a comprehensive “Human Trafficking Preventive Education Program.”

Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, said that this proposed program will arm the youth with vital information and protection measures against OSEC and other forms of trafficking.

He added that the program will put grassroots reporting mechanisms in place, which will empower communities to pursue decisive action against heinous criminals.

Research compiled in the United States Department of Labor’s report “2018 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor” show that the Philippines is the top global Internet source of OSEC.

Victims of OSEC are induced to perform sex acts at the direction of paying customers, both foreigners and Filipinos, for live internet broadcasts set in small internet cafes, private homes, and “cybersex dens.”

Citing data from the International Justice Mission Philippines, the same report from the US Labor Department revealed that the median age of OSEC victims at the time of rescue was 12. In 2018, cybertips of sexual images of Filipino children reported to the Department of Justice’s Office of Cybercrime increased from 45,645 to at least 600,000, an increase of more than 1000 percent.