Father Shay Cullen is an Irish Columban missionary who has worked in the Philippines since 1969. In 1974, he founded the Preda Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to protecting the rights of women and children and campaigning for freedom from sex slavery and human trafficking.
Hundreds of thousands of children are abused over the internet which they are given access to without safeguards. (Image: Pixabay)
The well-being of a nation is determined in part by how well the law is respected, implemented and enforced without fear or favor. Judges are bound to implement the rule of law by fair decisions based on what the law clearly says and true evidence.
Justice is at the very heart of morality. The implementation of the law is to correct an imbalance and inequality so that the good and the true will overcome evil and injustice.
The most vulnerable of all are the child victims of abuse and exploitation, dominated and abused by adults for their selfish gratification and profit. Individuals with ascendancy, who abuse children, must be held to account.
Diosdada, the mother of a teenage child whom she sold to men for sexual abuse, was convicted of qualified trafficking in persons by Judge Gemma Theresa B. Hilario-Logronio, a strict and just judge.
The judge believed the testimony of the child, given in a “clear and convincing manner.” The mother’s defense was a mere “denial,” while she was unable to present strong evidence that she was not capable of committing the crime.
The mother was convicted because she enabled and allowed the child to be abused by others.
Not only can individuals harm and hurt each other and children, but institutions and corporations can also abuse children and they do so all the time.
For example, a business entity that allows poison sewerage to flow freely into a community’s water source or the commander that fires a missile at a school or market must be held responsible and brought to justice.
"The same methods and strict penalties imposed upon the child abuser must also apply to the enabler"
The telecommunications corporations that allow child abuse material or live-streaming of child abuse to pass unrestricted through their servers are morally corrupt and must be held accountable for violation of the Philippines law RA 9775. Their defense is denial and that they don’t allow it intentionally.
Recently the child-friendly court of Judge Jaime D. Bugain of the Regional Trial Court Branch 18 in Malolos, Bulacan, arranged to hold a hearing in his chamber to prevent intimidation by the accused while the child’s testimony was taken. The child was allowed to sit with her back to the suspect to avoid intimidation.
The child’s father, who is backing his brother, the accused, was not allowed by Judge Bugain to sit before his daughter and intimidate her as she gave testimony against her father’s brother, who allegedly sexually abused her.
The same methods and strict penalties imposed upon the child abuser must also apply to the enabler, especially a corporation, without whom the abuse and harm cannot be done.
Illegal and horrific images of little children, some as young as three years old, among the many thousands being sexually abused live on the internet, are capable of reaching the computers, tablets, and smartphones of Filipinos and pedophiles here and abroad as detected by international law enforcement.
Local law enforcement agencies are apparently incapable of this cyber-detection and intervention.
It is the telecommunications corporations, with billions of reserve funds at their disposal, that fail to install AI-powered detection and available blocking software to make the internet safe. Hundreds of thousands of children are abused over the internet which they provide access to without safeguards.
They must strictly implement and obey Philippine laws specifically RA 9775 and RA 11930 that demand they install the latest blocking software to stop the repeated transmission of child pornography images and videos. The Philippines has been named as the world’s “hot spot” for child pornography and online sexual exploitation of children.
"Telecom firms ought to be morally and legally liable for the material posted on their platforms"
In the Philippines, cases have come to light of 10 and 11-year-old boys with child sexual abuse images on cell phones having sexually abused five and six-year-old girls. No one knows how widespread this is, yet they can download the images with ease. This is perhaps the most dangerous and destructive technology damaging children and youth.
Philippine telecommunication corporations are reportedly resisting and opposing the implementation of Section 9 of RA 9775 which demands they install blocking software to be used to protect Filipino children from online abuse.
One important development is the possibility of a legal challenge by US evangelical groups to the US law behind which telecoms hide. This is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of the United States that allows ISPs not to be held responsible for what is posted or traverses their servers and networks.
This must be reformed in the U.S. as the European Union is doing. As said, the telecom firms ought to be morally and legally liable for the material posted on their platforms. They are crimes committed and enabled through their computers and servers.
It seems that they are blind to the situation and are incompetent to block anything evil. They cannot even provide a secure ID for SIM card ownership. The ever-vigilant National Bureau of Investigation has discovered that even a monkey can have a certified SIM card issued by telecom firms.
The serious online child abuse has to be stopped and full implementation of Section 9 of RA 9775 is what must be done and the justice system must enforce that law.
May justice be done and seen to be done every day.
*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.
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