International group to work with police vs. online porn
Group to work with police vs. cyberporn
BY WORKING with local law enforcers, the new head of the International Justice Mission (IJM) in the Philippines is hopeful the organization will achieve the same success in fighting online child prostitution as they did in battling prostitution in the streets and brothels.
Speaking to reporters last Saturday, Jesse Rudy did not go into details on how IJM and local law enforcers go after perpetrators of online child prostitution, but said they take advantage of technology to rescue victims and arrest culprits.
Cybersex or cyberpornography in Cebu, particularly in the town of Cordova, has caught the attention of local authorities and international agencies after it was learned that parents themselves use their children to get money from online pedophiles.
Raids have been conducted against cybersex dens in Cordova in the past four years.
Rudy, a lawyer, said IJM and its local partners aim to replicate its success in combating child prostitution in streets and brothels in their campaign against online child prostitution.
In 2007, the IJM implemented Project Lantern, a five-year project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that aimed to help local authorities enforce the country’s antitrafficking law.
IJM has reported that the project helped decrease the number of minors available for commercial sex in Metro Cebu by 79 percent from 2006 to 2010.
Rudy, who replaced former IJM-Philippines country director Andrey Sawchenko last September, said he hopes to continue the successes the organization and its partners have made against sex trafficking in the country.
He headed the IJM office in Kampala, Uganda before taking over the post of Sawchenko, who now serves as head of the IJM office in Chennai, India.
Rudy reacquainted re-
porters on the works of IJM last Saturday night.
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“As an organization, IJM believes that every day violence against the poor is possibly the greatest plague of our time,” he said.
IJM-which is composed of lawyers, social work- ers, community activists and other professionals-operates in 20 developing countries with a mission to protect the poor from violence and help them get justice.
From protecting the poor from property grabbers in Uganda, Rudy is shifting his focus on rescuing children and women from the hands of sex traffickers.
He lauded the Philippine Government for passing Re- public Act 9208 or the AntiHuman Trafficking Act of 2003, saying the law is “one of the greatest weapons” against traffickers.
Last October 11, representatives of local government officials, civil society groups and National Government agencies renewed their commitment to end online abuse of children during the launch of “the zero child prostitution” campaign in Cebu City.