Liza Soberano joins fight vs online predators of kids during lockdown

Liza Soberano decided to do something about her anger against online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) by joining Sen. Risa Hontiveros and other children’s rights advocates to spread awareness on increasing prevalence of child sexual exploitation before and during the lockdown.

“Hindi ko po lubos kayang ma-comprehend na nagagawa po ng mga tao ‘yun. Because I’m aware that it’s happening on the dark web, pero hindi po ako aware na nangyayari din po siya sa mga social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter,” she said during a webinar aired on Risa’s Facebook page.

As an older sister to seven younger siblings, Liza got motivated to use her influence to do something about the underreported abuse victimizing local children.

“It was my first time, first-hand seeing people actually selling these photos, videos, graphic images about children and I’m upset on my part na hindi ko alam na nangyayari siya and I could have done something earlier to prevent those from happening by using my platform,” added Liza.

“I’m also upset and surprised because given the advancement in technology and social media that we have nowadays, dapat naisip na natin ‘yun na posible siyang mangyari through those outlets and it could be prevented, and we could have spread more awareness throughout people.”

The senator who is Chairperson of the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality wrote the National Bureau of Investigation to vent her indignation on the proliferation of child sexual exploitation material, which has “dramatically spiked” during the quarantine period in the country.

According to a study by the International Justice Mission, OSEC in the country worsened in recent years – 43 out of every 10,000 local Internet Protocol (IP) addresses were used for child sexual exploitation in 2014, tripling to 149 out of every 10,000 in 2017.

The Philippines is the largest known source of OSEC cases, receiving more than eight times as many referrals as any other country based on global law enforcement data.

The study analyzed 90 cases of OSEC between 2011 and 2017, involving 381 victims with an average age of only 11 years old — below the already low minimum age of legal sexual intercourse at 12 years old in the Philippines.

OSEC was also described as “usually a family-based crime” since biological parents and other relatives facilitated the abuse of a signification portion of all victims. In cases where length of abuse was documented, average was two years with the highest at four years.