DOJ: 202,605 child sex cases in homes during ECQ
by Hector LawasA TOTAL of 202, 605 cases of sexual exploitation of children inside homes have been recorded since Luzon including the National Capital Region have been placed under the enhanced community quarantine due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Department of Justice's Office of Cybercrime revealed this yesterday citing the CyberTipline Report (CTR) provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which claimed that the sexual exploitation transpired from March 1 to May 24, 2020.
The NCMEC is a private, non-profit corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization.
"The aforesaid increase in NCMEC CTRs is attributable to the fact that during the ECQ, strict home quarantine is observed in all households, and internet usage surges as people stay home," the DOJ said.
NCMEC is authorized by a United States law to receive reports from electronic communication service providers (e.g., Facebook, Yahoo, and Gmail) after obtaining actual knowledge of any facts or circumstances that sexual exploitation of children is being committed using its server or facility.
In dealing with these reports, the NCMEC prioritizes CTRs that need immediate action from the law enforcement agency. For instance, it is a NCMEC CTR priority when the child is in immediate danger because of sexual exploitation in travel and tourism, which is a form of sexual exploitation of children by a person or persons who travel from their home district, home geographical region, or home country in order to have sexual contact with children.
Procedurally, priority NCMEC CTRs are initially evaluated and assessed by the DOJ-OOC.
If based on said evaluation and assessment, a NCMEC CTR is found to be actionable, said report will be immediatey endorsed to the law enforcement agencies, such as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) – Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTRAD) and Philippine National Police (PNP) – Women and Children Protection Center (WCPC) for further investigation and other appropriate enforcement actions.
In a parallel manner, said NCMEC CTRs may also be endorsed to the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for the blacklisting of the offender in case of a travelling sex offender, and to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the rescue and counseling of the child victim.