DOJ to telcos: Help us block child porn sites

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima

MANILA, Philippines–To protect children from online sexual abuse, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is working to block online porn—with the help of telecommunications firms.

Concerned about the “alarming” increase in cases of Filipino children falling prey to online sexual predators, the justice department aims to partner with Internet service providers to install an at-source filter that would block sites with child sexual abuse content.

“We’re coming up with a filtering software… [but] because of the volume (of child sex abuse content), it is not humanly possible to do it. So it has to be something that’s automated, an available algorithm that if it shows certain banned sites worldwide, that site should not be accessed,” said Assistant Secretary Geronimo Sy, head of the DOJ’s cybercrime office.

Sy noted, however, that none of the telecommunications firms are cooperating with the DOJ in the program.

“They (telcos) cannot say that, oh, ‘we just provide the network, whatever happens in terms of content, we no longer have control.’ That’s not true… There’s no reason why you allow that (child pornography) to pass through your system. It’s like you just provide a bulletin board and whatever is put there, you no longer have any say. That’s not right,” Sy told reporters on Wednesday.

Sy said he expects the telecom firms to comply “anytime now” and for the filter to go live within the next six months as the National Telecommunications Commission had issued the regulations to implement the system “six to eight months ago.”

“And if they still continue to hedge and not do it, we’ll have to take stronger action and make sure it happens at least within the next six to 12 months,” he said.

Sy said the Philippines could use the database compiled by the Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) and the Europol (European Police Office), which lists all known sites where pedophiles go to access child pornography.

“Technology is not an issue. Equipment is not an issue. It’s not something that’s impossible. If we want to do it, we can,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a public-private sector roundtable on curbing the incidence of child sexual abuse.

Sy described the country as a net supplier of child sexual abuse content catering to online predators in mostly Western countries and other “hotspots.”

“It’s an import-export issue. So if we can’t control the importer because they are abroad, at least the source we can manage,” Sy said.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said there are an estimated 200 cases of online child abuse in the Philippines “yearly since 2013,” citing data from the cybercrime units of the Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation.

Globally, the 2005 estimates of the European Commission showed that one million child sexual abuse images are being uploaded every year online, with 70 percent of victims below age 10, De Lima said.

“Note that these images can be copied… potentially ad infinitum, so that the children they portray can be effectively revictimized forever, over and over again,” she said in remarks at the roundtable discussion that brought together DOJ officials, child rights advocates, information technology experts and telecom company representatives.

The Philippines is one of the 54 countries in the Global Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Online, a 2012 initiative to form a united front against child sexual abuse.