By removing all communication barriers, the Internet has become an integral part of society. It helps us connect and engage with other people, including children. While the quickly changing digital landscape is extremely promising, it has also opened up new avenues for crime and violence, posing threats and risks on child safety, especially with the ongoing pandemic.
According to the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child, “the digital environment is becoming increasingly important across most aspects of children’s lives, including during times of crisis, as societal functions, including education, government services and commerce, progressively come to rely upon digital technologies. It affords new opportunities for the realization of children’s rights, but also poses the risks of their violation or abuse.”
The UN body added that “crises, such as pandemics, may lead to an increased risk of harm online, given that children spend more time on virtual platforms in those circumstances.”
Today, with the pandemic, Filipino children are not exempted from digital hazards because they stay at home all the time as classes and other school activities have shifted online. With this, they are more vulnerable to online abuses, especially if they are left alone on their own.
Cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) are either perpetrated by friends, peers, family members, romantic partners of the child, or by anyone on the Internet.
As OSAEC continues to be a social concern, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), together with other members of the Inter-Agency Council Against Child Pornography (IACACP), has been consistently protecting children against pornography by helping create a better and safer online community for them.
The agency said it is our responsibility to consistently educate the children, their parents, and the general public on the nature and dynamics of the issue and on how to prevent it. There is also a need to make our reporting helplines, hotlines, and all community-based mechanisms more accessible to the public.
The DSWD, as the lead agency in the promotion and protection of the children, has been robust in crafting policies, and in conducting awareness and advocacy campaigns, in collaboration with other members of the Inter-Agency committee.
Over the years, the Department has intensified its coordination with IACACP member-agencies to address the issue of child pornography and online abuse. A major accomplishment of the Council was a strengthened advocacy for the prevention of child pornography through various platforms, including the formulation of a National Response Plan for OSAEC 2016-2020.
Through the DSWD Recovery and Reintegration Program for Trafficked Persons, 1,040 OSAEC victims from 2016 to September 2021 have been assisted. In 2021, the DSWD assisted 128 victims of OSAEC. RRPTP is one of the DSWD’s initiatives to provide adequate recovery and reintegration services to victim-survivors of trafficking. Utilizing a multi-sectoral approach, it delivers a complete package of services that will enhance the psychosocial, social, and economic needs of victim-survivors of trafficking.
The DSWD and the IACACP members are inviting everyone to participate in the celebration of the Safer Internet Day for Children Philippines (SID PH) on February 8, 2022. A forum with Internet service providers (ISPs) dubbed “ABCs of ISPs in Combating OSAEC” will be conducted during the kickoff activity to discuss the available technologies to combat and address OSAEC.
Mandated through Presidential Proclamation No. 417 in 2018, the celebration of Safer Internet Day for Children is one of the government’s strategies, through the IACACP, to spread awareness on the emerging needs to ensure the protection of children from risks and abuses brought about by lack of awareness or the misuse of the Internet.
The DSWD is calling for the continued support of all stakeholders, parents and guardians to observe, protect, and safeguard the best interest and welfare of all Filipino children against OSAEC.
The Department is also encouraging the community to be on the alert and immediately report to the authorities all forms of abuses against children.