THE world is changing, and changing fast. Our children are growing up in a world unlike anything we adults have experienced. This is because of the fast development of digital communications and the internet in at least the last 20 years. Many parents have lost personal contact with their children, who have increasingly become estranged from them and drawn into a digital world of their own. Parents and children seldom embrace, and children rarely have a friend-like bond with their parents. Many of these kids live in a cold, emotionless and virtual fantasy world where many abusers and predators — sexual, mental, emotional — lurk.
The worst experience a child can suffer is to be sexually assaulted or abused, even raped, by a parent, a family member or relative — his or her biological father, stepfather, grandfather or any other blood relation. However traumatic that is for the child, what makes it even more so is that the mother often allows the crime to happen. Some parents, relatives, and the authorities ignore the cries of these young abuse victims. They are letting the abuse happen because of money received or the inability to talk about it out of fear and shame, and so they bury the truth. For enabling, they are also guilty by association. Such people are rarely accused of a crime. There seems to be a criminal conspiracy in societies that allows communities to “consent” to such wrongdoing through silence. This not speaking up allows children to be raped and gives rapists impunity to commit their crimes.
Research shows that most nations had almost no child protection laws until the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was passed on Nov. 20, 1989. It later entered into force and became legally binding on Sept. 2, 1990. In the Philippines, Republic Act 7610, or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, was signed on June 17, 1992. While that protected many children from sexual abuse, the age of sexual consent remained at 12 for many years.
How far could societies and their leaders stray from the command of Jesus of Nazareth to protect children, as they are the most important in the Kingdom of God, and have their abusers drown in the sea with a millstone around their necks? Thankfully, the United States colonial-era legislation that had pegged the age of sexual consent at 12 since 1935 was abolished in March 2022. Until that change, moral outrage did not erupt in the Philippines throughout that time. Not even by the institutional church, of all denominations. That law had legitimized child sexual abuse. It was only after 1989, when the UN declared that every child has inviolable rights and dignity, that child abuse was finally declared for what it really is: a heinous crime. That came about mostly by the nonstop campaigning of dedicated child rights groups and good politicians.
Insurmountable challenge
Laws may be important words on paper, but changing a culture of child abuse is an almost insurmountable challenge. It continues in homes, communities, and churches. The sex industry in the country had been active for so long, partly due to the presence of US military bases until they were kicked out in 1992. Back then, sex bars and brothels were the marketplaces where children were sold for sex to foreign tourists and military personnel. This disturbing trade later moved to the internet, with telecommunications companies (telcos) allowing it to proliferate. The result? Children are being groomed for online abuse. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) once said in a report that in the Philippines, 20 percent — or one in five — of internet-using Filipino children aged 12 to 17 are subjected to online child sexual abuse and exploitation. This translates to roughly 2 million abused over the internet every year. A new law introduced in 2009 aimed to eliminate this crime, but the abuse persisted. “[M]inor victims are subjected to online grooming, receiving financial or material offers in exchange for sexual acts, and direct sextortion or blackmail,” the report added.
Child rights organizations and dedicated politicians have campaigned against this evil online practice, but to no avail. The law mandates that telcos like PLDT, Globe and Dito install state-of-the-art blocking software on their servers to stop the proliferation of child abuse images and videos. But they ignore it, as state regulators have failed to implement it. Clearly, the love of money is greater than the love of our children. Abusive materials on the internet can encourage 13-year-old boys to sexually assault six-year-old girls — or worse.
In 2026 alone, the internet’s influence has pushed teenagers to commit extreme violence in the Philippines and elsewhere. The Department of Education (DepEd) said there were as many as 15 incidents of school-based acts of extreme violence by teenagers against their classmates and teachers. In 2025 and 2026 so far, six people — five students and one teacher — were killed; two teenage perpetrators died by suicide, and over two dozen people were wounded. Researchers have found that students were deeply influenced by internet sites promoting violence.
This past week in the United States — widely viewed as leading in school violence and online child abuse — 52 attorneys general who took a case against Meta, which owns and operates social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, won an out-of-court settlement worth between $17 billion and $18 billion because of the harm these sites were inflicting on millions of their young users. Meta earns about $5.28 billion in net profit a month. These sites have “psychologically manipulative” features designed to keep young people glued online so as to sell more advertising time and earn $5 billion dollars a month. Social media companies are addicted to making money. The content on these sites causes children to have severe self- and body-image problems, causing psychological distortion and making them compare themselves to others in an unhealthy way. This leads to self-harm and even suicide; it’s also linked to online child sexual abuse. Who says the internet, and Facebook in particular, are here to help us? They are severely hurting our children.
www.preda.org
