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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.

It's time to rein in internet platforms

US advocacy group, ParentsTogether, set up a 'teddy bear sit-in' in front of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC to demand that Amazon stop hosting child pornography on its web services and to report it to the proper authorities, on July 29, 2020

US advocacy group, ParentsTogether, set up a 'teddy bear sit-in' in front of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC to demand that Amazon stop hosting child pornography on its web services and to report it to the proper authorities, on July 29, 2020. (Photo: AFP)

Published: February 28, 2023 11:31 AM GMT
The online environment is full of child abuse and exploitation for the sake of profit which demands an immediate solution

The shock and trauma of child sexual abuse caused by uncontrolled content on internet platforms and passing through the servers of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is life-lasting. Thousands of children are being psychologically and sexually abused online as you read this. Your children, your relatives and friends’ children could be among them.

Child sexual abuse material circulating on platforms of telecommunication corporations and hi-tech companies like TikTok, Google, Facebook, Twitter, PLDT, Globe, Dito, and many more, is at an all-time high.

Parents cannot know or control what their children are viewing and experiencing and with whom they are engaging over the internet which could damage them for life. The values that you teach your children are being eroded by the grooming, seduction, violence, fake news, and sex images circulated through ISPs.

Telecommunication companies everywhere claim that they are immune from civil liability and not responsible for the content that terrorists, criminals, or child sex abusers post on their social media platforms. It is a public billboard, free for all. That is because the US law, known as the Communications Decency Act of 1996 Section 230, grants immunity to social media platforms — unlike newspapers, radio, and television which are responsible and liable for the content.

At the same time, this Section 230 is contradicted by laws forbidding content containing racism, misogyny, child abuse, excessive material promoting terrorism and the live-streaming of child sexual abuse shows and other offensive material.

The powerful Philippine law RA 11930 forbids all child abuse material and mandated that Philippine telecommunication companies install blocking software, although many do not and are reluctant to allow independent inspections of compliance. Any individual found with such material on their cell phone or computer device could get at least 20 years imprisonment.

"That such material is easily available online and can be easily found on the internet by children, leading them to abuse other children, is shocking"

Not so long ago, three 10 and 11-year-old boys got hold of a smartphone and bought a cheap one or two-hour internet connection load from a telecommunications ISP. They easily found and viewed child sexual abuse material and downloaded it to watch it repeatedly. They were so sexually aroused that they found and raped a six-year-old girl.

Since such material is allowed to be posted and not blocked, parents can do little to stop it. The ISPs will not stop it despite RA 11930 as police enforcers don't know how to monitor the ISPs.

The reality that such material is easily available online and can be easily found on the internet by children, leading them to abuse other children, is shocking for a society many wrongly perceive as a Christian and civilized world.

Today, society is far from the values of the Gospel. The institutional Church teaches sacramental practice for believers to get to heaven and avoid hell. It has largely failed, with exceptions, to evangelize and preach the Gospel of social justice, love of neighbor, and protection of children, but covers up child sex abuse by clergy.

The internet platforms and ISPs are enabling and abetting these crimes and through algorithms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) software, they are promoting them.

These very issues are presently on trial in the US Supreme Court this week.

The telecommunication and social media corporations claim that they are not responsible and have immunity from prosecution under Section 230 of the US 1996 Communications Decency Act, which holds that the corporations are not liable for what is posted by others on their sites.

This is contradicted, as said above, by other laws that insist that all platforms must monitor their platforms and remove all indecent materials that induce crime, hatred, racism, extreme violence, obscene and child abuse.

"The outcome of the Supreme Court's deliberations could be a shock for the powerful social media corporations"

The issue is: Should Section 230 be repealed and will the justices of the US Supreme Court do it or not, and is that US law applicable in the Philippines and overstep Philippine sovereignty? That’s for the Philippine courts to decide.

Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act makes a big difference between ISPs and other media publications like radio, television and newspapers, which are strictly restricted and can be sued for libelous or obscene content.

Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, make billions of dollars by inducing customers to stay on their social media platforms as long as possible because of advertising revenues. To achieve this, they have resorted to using AI software and algorithms to recommend, suggest and push more and more related material for visitors to their sites to increase advertising earnings.  Even if that meant promoting illegal material like child sexual abuse and exploitation or terrorist acts, it doesn’t matter to them.

The family of Nohemi Gonzalez, an American exchange student killed in a terrorist attack in Paris in 2015, is suing YouTube owned by Google in the US Supreme Court for promoting terrorist websites and terrorist recruitment and propaganda. They say YouTube and Google are aiding and abetting acts of terror that killed their child. Such acts are forbidden by anti-terror laws.

The outcome of the Supreme Court's deliberations could be a shock for the powerful social media corporations that control so much of people’s lives, especially vulnerable children.

This is where they do not have the protection of Section 230. It is one thing to have material posted on their sites, which they say they try to take down, but to allow the software to automatically find more abusive material and deliver it to the customer is a crime in itself, some say.

Will the US Supreme Court justices rule in favor of the social media corporations or in favor of protecting the public from this uncontrolled promotion of obscene images of child abuse? We will soon know when the decision is handed down if they have the intelligence and moral force to protect children or not.

*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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