Charles Teves
Sen. Risa Hontiveros hopes that the Philippine National Police’s anti-cybercrime group will take action against a YouTube channel teaching viewers how to conduct child grooming.
The channel in question, ‘Usapang Diskarte,’ alarmed Filipinos upon the release of the tutorial video.
“@facebook, @YouTube, @PNPpio Anti-cybercrime group, please have a look. The people behind these accounts should be brought to justice,” Hontiveros tweeted.
“To my followers, please keep reporting the Usapang Diskarte page & channel,” she added.
Hontiveros would like to see the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) Bill signed immediately.
“These horrifying photos tell us what we already knew: that an Anti-Online Sexual Abuse & Exploitation of Children law is absolutely and urgently needed,” she said in another tweet.
“I call on the executive to sign the Anti-OSAEC law now. Our children need the full power & protection of this measure,” the senator added.
These horrifying photos tell us what we already knew: that an Anti-Online Sexual Abuse & Exploitation of Children law is absolutely and urgently needed.
I call on the executive to sign the Anti-OSAEC law now. Our children need the full power & protection of this measure. pic.twitter.com/nnZ8rZEcQP
— risa hontiveros (@risahontiveros) July 14, 2022
Unfortunately, former president Rodrigo Duterte did not sign the proposed bill under his term. Hontiveros, who proposed it, said it “establishes protections and guarantees for child victims of OSAEC, particularly with respect [to] their psycho-social needs” and “grants additional investigation and surveillance tools to law enforcement agents, taking into account the complexities of the internet and the dark web.”
She said it gives electronic service providers and internet intermediaries the responsibility to block child abuse content on their platforms. The bill also creates the National Coordinating Center against OSAEC and CSAEM under the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking.
Child grooming falls under sexual abuse, which is a process of manipulating minors into doing sexual acts.
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), an anti-sexual violence organization describes grooming as an attempt “to gain trust of a potential victim through gifts, attention, sharing ‘secrets’ and other means to make them feel that they have a caring relationship and to train them to keep the relationship secret.”
“Abusers will often start to touch a victim in ways that appear harmless, such as hugging, wrestling and tickling, and later escalate to increasingly more sexual contact, such as massages or showering together. Abusers may also show the victim pornography or discuss sexual topics with them, to introduce the idea of sexual contact,” it said in an explainer.
Between March to May 2020, crimes related to online child sexual abuse skyrocketed by 265 percent in the country, as reported by WeProtect Global Alliance.
YouTube already addressed the Usapang Diskarte channel issue.
“Hi, we’re looking into this and handle all next steps from here. thanks for sharing,” it said.
A Twitter user also posted a screenshot of an email from the National Bureau of Investigation regarding the matter.
“This case was consequently endorsed to the Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTRAD) for immediate investigation. We note in your message that you have saved or archived the subject YouTube Videos as evidence. We appreciate this action,”
https://twitter.com/calmeister_/status/1547405606058790913?s=20&t=mQd2tCMb82Nwuax6d9E16A
Under the comment section of the child grooming tutorial video, viewers showed interest in learning more about the activity, which was even more alarming to most.
https://twitter.com/suzy899/status/1547046674602037248?s=20&t=I_KxbtB_AyAaD1MPNAoVpw
