Filipino children most appealing to global online sex predators (1st of 2 parts)

by Cherry Ann Lim, Sunstar, 25 July 2020

Filipino children most appealing to global online sex predators (1st of 2 parts)

MARA* (real name withheld) was only 11 years old when her female cousin Jade first livestreamed her sexual abuse for a paying customer abroad.

Jade’s male live-in partner also sexually abused Mara.

The child’s ordeal ended only after two years when personnel from the Philippine National Police’s Women and Children Protection Center-Visayas Field Unit (WCPC-VFU) rescued her in 2019 following a tip from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which was investigating US-based child sex offender Alan Dennis Wolff.

Jade, 25, and her live-in partner were arrested in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu on April 6, 2020 on the strength of arrest warrants issued by a Lapu-Lapu City court judge for violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, Anti-Child Abuse Law, and Anti-Child Pornography Act in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act, the International Justice Mission (IJM) reported.

Up north, in Daanbantayan town, a 29-year-old woman was arrested in March after getting caught in an online transaction offering to sexually abuse her daughter and two other female relatives, aged 5 to 12, for money from a foreign sex offender.

The arrest also came after a referral given to the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Center (Picacc), this time from the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service regarding an American suspected of sending money to the Philippines for explicit pictures of minors.

The Picacc is a cooperation among the Philippine National Police WCPC, the National Bureau of Investigation’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division, the Australian Federal Police and the United Kingdom National Crime Agency with nongovernment organization IJM.

Technology pitfalls

The sexual exploitation of children is not new. But the global deployment of low-cost, high-speed internet has now made it easier for pedophiles to find children to abuse anywhere in the world.

Whereas before, pedophiles had to physically travel to the Philippines to sexually abuse children, today they can simply “go online, anonymously wire payment, and direct the live sexual abuse of the child from the safety and comfort of their home,” said John Tanagho, IJM End Osec Center director, in a 2019 video on the rescue of the child Joy* in Cebu City after eight years of such abuse. Joy was only nine when her abuse began.

Top source

The Philippines is the world’s largest known source of cases of online sexual exploitation of children (Osec), according to a study released in May.

The IJM defines Osec as the production, for the purpose of online publication or transmission, of visual depictions (e.g., photos, videos, live streaming) of the sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor for a third party who is not in the physical presence of the victim, in exchange for compensation.

According to the study entitled “Online Sexual Exploitation of Children in the Philippines: Analysis and Recommendations for Governments, Industry and Civil Society,” 64 percent of Philippine Osec cases from 2010-2017 started with referrals from international law enforcement agencies, and over this period, the Philippines received a whopping 76 percent of all referrals of Osec cases made by international law enforcement agencies investigating customers in their countries.

The Philippines received 237 referrals. Mexico was a far second with 27 referrals; followed by Brazil, 19; India, 18; Thailand, five; Romania, four; and Cambodia, three, according to the study led by the IJM in partnership with the US Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and the Philippine Inter-agency Council Against Trafficking.

Most of the international referrals involved customers from the United States (31 cases), Sweden (11 cases), Australia (seven cases), and the United Kingdom (four cases).

There were also customers from Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Israel.

The Philippines’ large English-speaking population, availability of cheap broadcast-capable mobile devices and internet access, and strong money remittance infrastructure were seen as factors that enabled traffickers to get into the business of directing or committing the contact abuse of children for the remote viewing of foreign clients.

Hard to find

The study reviewed 92 Osec cases investigated in the Philippines involving at least 381 victims. But this does not mean these were the only Osec victims during this period.