A landmark two-year study by the International Justice Mission and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab lays bare the magnitude of online child abuse for profit in the South-East Asian archipelago.<\/p>\n
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One of the victims rescued in a record-breaking operation by the Philippine National Police in June that was triggered by intelligence obtained by Australian authorities.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Philippine National Police<\/cite><\/p>\n It estimates that one in 100 children in the Philippines were victims in 2022 alone, while almost 250,000 adults in the country trafficked children to record new material.<\/p>\n Australia has been identified as the third-highest contributor to payments for such content behind the United States and the United Kingdom, according to the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council, a government agency in Manila.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just dreadful. It\u2019s such an underreported crime that it was really difficult to know just how prevalent it is,\u201d said International Justice Mission Australia chief executive Steve Baird.<\/p>\n \u201cSo this bit of research is the first time, I think, anywhere globally that we\u2019ve really had a pulse on the size of this and it\u2019s shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n The Scale of Harm<\/em> report was developed with survivor consultants and a research team that included experts from the Australian Institute of Criminology as well as Lynne Walker, the former intelligence director of financial crimes watchdog AUSTRAC.<\/p>\n The abuse usually takes place in real time on livestreams and offenders, mostly watching from abroad, typically pay between $30 and $70 via an international money transfer for the commissioning of a video. Previous research by the International Justice Mission in 2020 showed the average age of children trafficked in the Philippines to be 11.<\/p>\n Intelligence obtained from the Australian Federal Police led to the biggest rescue of victims at once in the Philippines in June. Sixteen children, one as young as 10, were freed in an operation in the north of the country.<\/p>\n The operation was instigated after a January search of a 56-year-old Queensland man\u2019s baggage at Sydney Airport by Australian Border Force officers uncovered child abuse material and incriminating messages.<\/p>\n The Philippine National Police removes 14 children from harm in a rescue operation based on Australian Federal Police information in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n Baird said agencies such as the AFP and the Brisbane-based, AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation were doing \u201cexcellent\u201d work trying to combat child exploitation in connection with overseas authorities such as the Philippine National Police.<\/p>\n But with $1.3 million having flowed from Australia in more than 9000 suspicious transactions between 2020 and 2022, he believes the scourge of online sexual abuse needs to be tackled by technology giants and banks with more urgency.<\/p>\n \u201cThe single biggest thing that can be done is [for] the tech companies to use technology that\u2019s designed to prevent or disrupt livestreamed child sexual abuse, including the manufacturers of camera-enabled devices as well because the technology does exist,\u201d Baird said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou saw with the terrible massacre in Christchurch [in 2019] when terrorism was livestreamed, that was a moment in time when Facebook said \u2018you can\u2019t have that\u2019 and actually took some proactive steps.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that disturbs me is a lot of it is just happening on the normal web through these regular social media channels. The size and the scale of it tells us that in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n The report, released on Thursday, also recommends the reporting and blocking of suspicious transactions by financial institutions to be expedited.<\/p>\n Samson Inocencio, a Philippines lawyer, said he hoped the findings would encourage the government in Manila to intensify the fight against trafficking of children for abuse, and convince communities to report the crime.<\/p>\n Traffickers\u2019 use of pre-paid SIM cards makes them difficult to track.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, this is a global issue fuelled by demand [internationally] but we would love for greater community reporting especially because a lot of these incidents are happening in local communities across the Philippines,\u201d he said. \u201cWe would love for local people to be aware of what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n Philippine authorities have removed 1181 victims of child abuse from harm and caught 359 perpetrators, according to the International Justice Mission.<\/p>\n Get a note directly from our foreign <\/i><\/b>correspondents <\/i><\/b>on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. <\/i><\/b>Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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