Philippines to block online child porn on most devices

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government will start blocking child pornographic sites on most computers, smartphones, and tablets, in an attempt to reduce cases of online child abuse.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Wednesday, October 29, that the government is getting help from the private sector to develop a system that will filter adult contents on phones, public Wi-Fi networks, and home computers.

“Mindful of our laws and our policy targets as a member of the Global Alliance, we can devise ways to combat online child sexual abuse effectively and in a manner consistent with our democratic principles,” De Lima said during the Public-Private Roundtable Dialogue on Areas of Collaboration to Stop Online Child Abuse in Makati City.

“The DOJ (Department of Justice) is working with telcos for a filtering software to restrict access to porn/banned sites as we fight against online child sexual abuse,” she said.

The justice secretary said the campaign aims at preventing two things: children falling victims to online exploitation by being used in the production of pornographic content; children getting access to legal pornography earlier than the allowed age.

De Lima said online child abuse is the leading cybercrime in the Philippines, citing figures from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). (READ: PH a global ‘source’ for child cybersex industry)

Roughly 46% or 200 of cybercrime cases that the PNP and the NBI are handling are related to online child abuse, she said. Twenty-five percent of cybercrime cases reported to the authorities are related to online sextortion. (READ: Cybersex, media, and the cybercrime law)

“The scale of online child sexual abuse demands that nations act swiftly and decisively against it, through the enactment and enforcement of laws to punish its perpetrators and protect its victims,” De Lima said.

She said government alone cannot solve the problem of online sexual abuse of children, and would need the cooperation of other stakeholders.

“It cannot be solved by government alone because of the multivalent nature of this crime, which is carried out through Internet service providers and transacted using financial institutions, and which needs to be combated with effective information campaigns in schools, churches and media,” De Lima said. – Rappler.com