LEONARDO da Vinci, the legendary Italian Renaissance artist and genius who painted the “Mona Lisa,” “The Last Supper,” and other masterpieces, once invented a human-powered flying machine in his mid-30s. Although it wasn’t practical to use in his day, that machine later evolved through the centuries into various forms that have allowed people to soar in the sky like birds.
That’s the way with human invention. One invention leads to another more ingenious and powerful than the last. Here’s another example: brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright of the United States tried flying with a motor and propeller. They crashed, but they tried again and again, and finally succeeded on Dec. 17, 1903. Today, humans have built, and continue to build, massive jetliners based on what the brothers learned and invented.
The first electromechanical code-breaking machine or “computer,” known as the Bombe, was invented in 1940 by English inventor and mathematician Alan Turing. That invention broke the German wartime code. Then followed the Colossus, designed and built by British engineer Tommy Flowers in early 1944. It also broke German wartime cypher codes. Their successors are the massive and incredibly powerful supercomputers of today.
Now, 82 years later, computer scientists have developed artificial intelligence (AI), a software running on high-powered computer chips that can process information a thousand times faster than humans can. This software can also be self-educating, and soon it will be self-controlling. Some computer scientists say it could take control of the world one day and pose a threat to humanity itself.
Today, those threats are real. Social workers and psychologists are already living through a devastating human quagmire of AI-generated images and videos of child sexual abuse spreading across the internet like a virus, damaging millions of children and adults alike worldwide.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, agreed in late August to pay $18 billion to settle US lawsuits claiming that it designed these platforms to keep children addicted to them so it could maximize profits from advertising at the expense of kids’ mental health and safety. Meta strongly denied this allegation. A similar court case in New Mexico claimed that the platforms failed to protect children online from sexual exploitation and abuse.
Powerful AI-assisted image-generation tools are allowing predators to create false pictures and videos of children doing sexual acts. They are sold online and could induce 13-year-old boys to sexually abuse 6-year-old girls — a scenario that is becoming all too common. These images are used to normalize the sexualization of children and increase demand for it. They also earn billions of dollars for the tech giants.
There is also the abuse of “stolen” images of children. A child’s photographs are stolen and manipulated by AI software into images showing that child participating in sexual acts with an adult. These are also sold to pederasts for their sexual gratification. The child knows nothing of it, but can be blackmailed on social media, and his or her life is destroyed before his or her parents and classmates. It can lead to suicide for some.
Common crime
The livestreaming of child sexual abuse acts on mobile phones connected to the internet is a common crime in the Philippines and elsewhere. Even parents and relatives abuse their own children to earn money from foreigners using low-cost mobile phones. They buy “load” or mobile data from telecommunications companies (telcos) or internet service providers (ISPs) with international connections.
A recent case involved a mother in Angeles City who was contacted by a Dutch pedophile offered money for sex acts with her three children and two nieces. The five children’s ages ranged from one to six. Their abuse was discovered by Dutch police and led to a local police operation that saved the children. The children were then brought under the care and protection of the Preda Foundation’s children’s home in Olongapo City. They are now undergoing therapy and enjoy a playful and happy environment, free from the emotional, sexual and psychological abuse they endured. They will be reintegrated with supportive relatives and receive aftercare from the Preda home.
AI-enabled online child abuse is an international crime that is expanding rapidly beyond the control of government. Government agencies like the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) are powerless to police the telcos and make them obey the law. The country needs a new and more powerful agency led by internet-savvy officials with integrity and dedication who can, without fear or favor, enforce child-protection laws and resist the power of the telcos and ISPs that are allowing children’s abuse online.
The primary legislation governing internet child protection in the Philippines is Republic Act 11930, or the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials Act. The Internet Watch Foundation recently found up to 14,000 child sexual abuse images suspected as AI-generated images on a single site on the dark web. Potential child abusers or predators visit sites like this and develop inclinations to physically and sexually abuse children, as have been discovered in previous cases. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has reported that in South Korea, research by police discovered a 10-fold increase in AI-instigated sexual crimes against teenagers by fellow teenagers. The NTC apparently reported no child-abusive websites.
Recent large-scale research by Unicef, the End Child Prostitution and Trafficking network, and Interpol under the Disrupting Harm project showed that across 11 countries, at least 1.2 million children reported having had their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes made with AI tools in the past year. In some of these countries, this translates to one in 25 children, or one child in a typical classroom.
These technological developments mean that a child’s body, identity and reputation can be violated remotely and permanently. Furthermore, children can be threatened or blackmailed using images that may be fabricated but appear real and credible, which can haunt them for decades, according to Unicef.
The need for more updated technological tools must be deployed by telcos if they are to obey the law and protect children from such horrific crimes. However, the alleged collusion between the authorities and the telcos has not even resulted in fines for failing to install the needed state-of-the-art, AI-powered software that can detect and delete child sex abuse images and trace their source. Law enforcers can easily trace them, like what their counterparts in the West are doing, and bring the perpetrators to trial. In the case involving the Dutch police, the abusive mother has pleaded guilty and will spend a long time in jail. Her three children and their two cousins will be cared for by Preda and their supportive relatives.
Only when the country’s leaders commit with other righteous people to protect children against the enablers of online child sexual abuse will this evil end. In the meantime, the work of saving the child victims must go on.
www.preda.org