GROUPS SEEK LAWS TO CURB CHILD RAPE
Kill culture of silence
ADVOCACY groups vowed to push for more effective laws to raise the age of sexual consent in order to deter child rape and help better determine the grounds for statutory rape.
The groups asked Sen. Risa Hontiveros to sponsor a bill that will amend the anti- child rape and anti-trafficking laws that provide that children aged 12 and above are legally able to consent to have sex.
Dr. Elizabeth de Castro of the Psychosocial Support and Children’s Rights Resource Center said 12-year- olds are still not able to comprehend the meaning of consent and sexuality.
“Laws should not keep the age of sexual consent as low as 12 years, because even more Filipino children would fall victim to commercial sexual exploitation,” de Castro said.
The groups want the age of sexual consent raised to 16.
De Castro cited a recent Unicef study that tagged the Philippines as the global epicenter for child sex abuse, with eight out of 10 Filipino children reportedly at risk of cyber sexual abuse.
Another study of international humanitarian organization Plan International completed in 2016 said children from slum areas are abused in online shows, asked to carry out degrading acts on film and service a global audience of pedophiles.
“The Philippines has the lowest age of sexual consent stated in its laws, as compared to its neighboring countries in Asia where the minimum is 16 or 18 years old,” the study titled “Children and the Sex Trade in the Digital Age” said.
De Castro said one of the main culprits of child sex abuse is unsupervised computer and internet access among children, such as the “Pisonet” scheme of renting net connection and early use of gadgets.
She said an estimated 100,000 Filipino children are trafficked through prostitution rings and cybersex hubs each year.
“This is a business of men. The best place to traffic due to poverty and geography, corruption and internet and mobile access, migration mentality, this makes us a perfect place for trafficking,“Anthony Pangilinan of Called to Rescue said. In some instances, parents abet the trafficking of their children, Trish Ayson of child abuse rehabilitation through sports group Girls Got Game said.
“Impoverished parents living in Philippine shanties don’t believe they are doing anything wrong,” she revealed. “Because they think they are just actually performing on the computer, and there’s no contact, there is no touch, it’s fine.”
She said an increasing number of children are now being filmed and coaxed to be unwittingly abused online, sometimes by their peers.
According to Pangilinan, some individuals are “cashing in on Facebook to put perverts in direct contact with their victims. Once the transaction ends and photos and videos are sold, the connection through a secret page will be deleted.”
Plan Philippines said it is working with the Facebook Philippines team based in Bonifacio Global City to control the conduct of cybersex using their social network.
“These incidents are not limited to the marginalized, as even more children unwittingly surrender themselves to different sexual markets online because of poor family values and sexual education,” Pangilinan said.
He added that sex education should start at a young age so that children can develop the sense of valuing sexuality.
“Most parents, even those in the middle class, do not know how to talk to their children. With that, they tend to lock themselves in their rooms, and their parents do not know that they are in contact with predators online, sending videos and photos,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Ernesto Almocera Jr. of Plan International Philippines said sex should be taught properly to children.
“The culture of silence unwittingly emboldens our children to engage (in sex) because they do not know the value of their sexuality. Our country is generally a conservative country and sexual matters like these are not discussed at home and at school,” Almocera said.