The Philippine National Police is continuing to crack down on the sexual exploitation of Filipino children by online predators, P/Lt. Michelle Sabino told Daily Tribune’s digital show Gising Na! on Friday.
According to Sabino, the PNP and other law enforcement units like the National Bureau of Investigation are acting on every report that reaches their attention to stop the use of online platforms like WeChat to peddle sex shows featuring minors.
“Sometimes parents exploit their own children to do online sex acts as they are paid by foreigners serving as patrons,” Sabino, an officer of the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Division said.
She said most sexual exploitations of minors are not reported because of the complicity of the parents or other adults who control the activities of the exploited children.
Sabino urged the public to report to the women’s and children’s protection desks of the PNP the nefarious activities of sex traffickers, including those of parents who sell their own flesh and blood.
A 2016 report by the United Nations International Children’s Education Fund said that 2.5 percent of children in the Philippines have had their nude bodies or sexual activities shown on the Internet.
With the lockdowns arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, the country’s Department of Justice has noted a threefold increase in online sexual exploitation of children.
“Sexual predators, locked in their homes due to quarantine, have increasingly turned to cyberspace in order to victimize children,” a report by the World Hope International said.