The Southeast Asian country has been identified as one of many trouble spots for online child abuse on the Internet, a growing phenomenon due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Cheng Veniles works with law enforcement officials, prosecutors and courts as part of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) initiatives on online child protection.
She started a small informal network of dedicated men and women who relied on each other for support when tracking down abusers.
“Videos and images of children that are sexually exploitative or child sexual abuse material are being sold online for between $15 and $20.
Cheng Veniles of UNODC.
Rates of online child sexual abuse and exploitation exploded in the Philippines during the pandemic partly because many people lost their jobs and livelihoods. And part of it is due to the mistaken cultural concept of “No touch, No harm”.
The perpetrators, often family members and relatives of the child, will say that no harm was done, that no abuse occurred because no one touched their child’s body.
Do you want us to starve?
A recent trend in the Philippines is for the child’s parent’s spouse or boyfriend to have the technical expertise to post content on the dark web and then receive payment in cryptocurrency.
When asked to explain why they allow the children in their care to be abused online, they respond – Do you want us to starve?
It’s heartbreaking that some children don’t think they’re being abused until they’re rescued. They believe they are just helping their family, not knowing that these online photos and videos could ruin their future when they grow up.
This is not just a Philippine problem born of poverty. Consumers are overseas so this is a global issue and UNODC is working with international police liaison officers and supporting the engagement of consumer countries to encourage cooperation between law enforcement agencies to prevent abuses.
Without consumers, this industry would not exist.
It’s heartbreaking that some children don’t think they’re being abused until they’re rescued. They believe they are just helping their family.
— Cheng Veniles
Care at the frontline of the response
In the Philippines, we have law enforcement officers we call cyber police, prosecutors, special cyber criminals, and family courts, all of which are part of the ecosystem of going after perpetrators. commit online child abuse and handle this issue strictly.
The emotional impact on both victims and those dealing with the problem from law enforcement to prosecutors, counsel to court staff can be deeply troubling.
We have been asked in seminars before, who cares about us?
Part of my role as UNODC Country Program Officer is to support these people and provide a means – albeit a seemingly informal one – to help them deal with the mental torture they experience. they have to suffer from having to watch this heartbreaking content.
They are also fathers and mothers themselves, so they are deeply affected by what they see.
At first, there were only WhatsApp and Viber groups and gradually we got together for coffee, sometimes lunch to discuss problems and in this way we supported each other through our common pain.
We also text each other regularly to check in on each other and find out if there are experts on the team that one can tap for a particular case. We have unintentionally built a strong professional and collegial network in which participants truly care about each other.
The Internet is safer
United Nations agencies are working to ensure that the Internet is a safer place for young people.
There is an unspoken understanding that no one will leave this group or their job until the situation improves. One of us resigned in April and the group chat went silent for about a week. But there were cases that needed to be resolved, online undercover work that needed to be done, training events that had to be held, and we were all back in action.
Maybe we’re driven by some misplaced idealism, or maybe we’re just taking advantage of each other’s passions, or maybe it’s just the hope that we can at least make our children proud.
As a mother, I am motivated by UNODC’s goal of ensuring children can enjoy the Internet without any harm, but I am also proud that my work here helps alleviate suffering of others by bringing them together and reminding them that it is the job of all of us to make the strange wild world of the Internet a little safer. ”
