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25 January 2005 : E-sex industry in the Philippines preys on children+ print version
A new form of "entertainment" that preys on children from poor families has taken shape in the Philippines in the last five years, ...
By
Japan Economic Newswire
A new form of "entertainment" that preys on children from poor families has taken shape in the Philippines in the last five years, luring porn industry producers from rich countries to cash in on the hugely lucrative sex business.
In the latest bizarre twist to cyber pornography in the Philippines, children under 10 are being paid to perform sex acts before web cameras linked to Internet sites that anyone in the world can see for a fee.
Electronic sex or e-sex is the new face of entertainment in this heavily indebted country of 84 million, that has been notorious in the past for sex tourism.
Dubbed the "electronic red-light district," the Internet has become favorite hangout for pedophiles like those arrested here to date from such countries as the United States, Japan, Canada, Malaysia, Belgium, Britain, Austria, Australia, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Eduardo Manzano, chairman of the Optical Media Board, a government agency that wages war against software piracy, said around 40 percent of all the videos confiscated by the board were sex videos and about of them feature minors under the legal age of 18.
"We have started to see a marked increase of videos involving children ranging from ages 11 to 14," he said.
Citing a recent study, Sen. Ma. Ana Madrigal said in an interview that the Philippines is one of the world's largest producers of child pornography now along with countries like Thailand, China and those in South America.
"The situation is getting worse. Operators of child pornography and sex trafficking in the Philippines earn more than $1 billion a year. That's why more and more children have fallen prey to this scam," said Madrigal, who is now crafting a law that will prosecute operators of child pornography and e-sex.
There are an estimated 50 to 75 "cyber sex dens" in the Philippines today, said senior police officer Rodolfo Mendoza in an interview.
"There are medium, there are large, there are also small hotspots. These prostitution fronts look like ordinary girlie bars," said Mendoza, chief of the police criminal investigation and detection group.
The larger cyber sex stations are usually within a brothel, while other dens could be go-go or karaoke bars in the capital and other urban areas across the nation.
"In one room, girls dance nude in front of men who are really watching. Other men are huddled in another secret room watching the same girls dance before a web camera," he said. "So there's interplay of the virtual (world) and the real world."
The fad first started as sex chats before it developed into full-blown cyber sex complete with advertisements, pictures and telephone numbers for customers to call on the Internet, he said.
What is startling, Mendoza said, is that investigations showed that some of the children are being peddled by their own parents.
"Some of the parents even escort their children to the dens...For them, their children are not violated because they are not actually being touched while doing lewd acts because the child dances in front of the camera, performs sexual acts with sex toys," he said.
X-rated DVDs and VCDs showing young Filipino children have flooded the market and are being sold between 350 pesos (about $6.30) and 400 pesos apiece.
Mendoza said the children are paid the local equivalent of $1.99 per minute for their services, turning them into "willing victims."
Alex Ramos of the Philippine Center for Missing and Exploited Children said the Philippines has an abundant supply of potential victims.
Ramos cited the case last July where a 67-year-old Japanese man was arrested in a resort in Laguna Province, south of Manila, for taking pictures and videos of some 70 children aged 5 to 16. The children were reportedly offered huge sums of money starting at 10,000 pesos.
The previous year, an 85-year-old American man was arrested in Los Angeles after U.S. customs officials searched his luggage as he attempted to board a flight to Manila and found pornographic materials, sex aids, 45 kilograms of chocolate and candy, and thousands of dollars.
He had already made appointments to meet with pre-teen Filipino girls and reportedly told investigators he had "sexually educated" young girls in the Philippines with their parents' consent since 1983 and did not consider it rape.
"It's difficult to address the problem, due to poverty. We can only address it by controlling the demand, not the supply," Ramos said in an interview.
"It's difficult to put a figure. Many cases are not reported. Parents are not complaining and many of the children are abandoned. So who will take the cudgels for them?" he said.
In 1995, the U.N. Children's Fund estimated that 220,000 children in 65 major cities in the country are in the streets. In 1998, the government reported there are 222,417 street children in 65 major cities. A former senator has also indicated that their rose from 223,000 to 1.5 million between 1991 and 1999.
More and more children are forced to work due to poverty. In 2001, an estimated 4 million Filipino children aged 5 to 17, or 16.2 percent of the total for this age group, were working.
Between 60,000 and 100,000 children nationwide are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, according to studies.
Data show that children trapped in commercial sexual exploitation are concentrated in tourist spots. Children there are highly vulnerable to drugs, physical violence and sexually transmitted diseases.
The government prohibits prostitution, deeming the pornography business illegal. But it is constrained in containing prostitution due to flaws in laws or simply lack of them.
"No matter how well the police do their jobs (nothing happens) due to the weakness in the law. There may be arrests but no conviction even when the evidence is glaring," said Madrigal, chair of the Senate Committee on Women and Children.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050126/kyodo/d87rk6mo0
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