PH to regulate porn sites to curb child abuse
MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Justice (DOJ) is working to regulate porn sites in the Philippines to protect children from sexual predators.
“We are coming up with a filtering software,” Justice Assistant Secretary Geronimo Sy, head of the Department of Justice’s Office of Cybercrime said Wednesday. “It has to be something that is automated, an available algorithm that if it shows certain banned sites worldwide, that side should not be accessed.”
“It will show certain banned websites at least from the Interpol (International Police), Europol (European Police) that we put together,” he said.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Sy said the cybercrime office has asked the help of telecommunication companies to install an at-source filter that will block sites with sexual abuse content.
However, he said none of the telecommunication firms are cooperating with the DOJ.
“If they still continue to hedge and not do it, because every day crimes are committed, we’ll have to take stronger action and make sure it happens at least within the next six to 12 months,” Sy said.
Justice Secretary Leila De Lima said there have been an estimated 200 cases of online child abuse in the Philippines yearly since 2013 based on records of the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation cybercrime units.
Worldwide, estimates by the European Commission in 2005 showed that one million child sexual abuse images are uploaded every year online with 70 percent of victims below the age of 10.
“These images can be copied…potentially ad infinitum (endless) so that the children they portray can be effectively re-victimized forever, over and over again,” De Lima said during the public-private sector roundtable dialogue on child sexual abuse online.
De Lima said all sectors should cooperate to stop this problem.
“The problem of online child sexual abuse demands cooperation among all relevant stakeholders, and it cannot and must not be solved by government alone,” she said. “It cannot be solved by government alone because of the multivalent nature of this crime, which is carried out through internet service providers and transacted using financial institutions, and which needs to be combated with effective information campaigns in schools, churches, and media.”
