Internet: a Gateway of Child Exploitation and Its Effects in Barangay Pasil, Cebu City,

University of San Carlos – Main Campus P. del Rosario Street, Cebu City, Cebu

Internet: A Gateway of
Child Exploitation and its Effects in Barangay Pasil, Cebu City,

1st Semester 2010 - 2011
October 12, 2010

ABSTRACT

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the Study

Internet is a form of media. It is a global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of either private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic and optical networking technologies. Thus, it carries a vast range of information resources and services an individual may need.

Today, internet is not just used for sharing data. Most traditional communications media are being reformed or redesigned by the Internet. Newspapers, books and other print publishings had to adapt to Websites and blogging. It enabled new forms of human interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking. Online selling and so as shopping are also hot trends in the market. Business-to-business and financial services (e.g. banking and disbursing) on the Internet affect supply chains across the entire industries. Indeed, Internet has flourished throughout the many years.

But its influence does not only stop there. With the CyberSex or Virtual Sex Industry slowly arising in the Internet, it is now also used as means of exploiting children – preferably on child pornography, which is the visual representation of minors under the age of 18 engaged in sexual activity or the visual representation of minors engaging in lewd or erotic behavior designed to arouse the viewer’s sexual interest. This may include actual or simulated sexual intercourse involving minors, deviant sexual acts, bestiality, masturbation, sado-masochistic abuse, or the exhibition of genitals in a sexually arousing fashion. Easy available pornography on the internet appears to have brought problems for some people. A number of our sexual offenders’ clients have been incarcerated because they accessed illegal material online.

In many areas, not only outside the Philippines but also here in the local areas; like Pasil, Cebu, child pornography is very rampant. These past few months, there were many reported cases of such act. Numerous young minors ages 9 – 17 were held under custody in DSWD after being rescued from a raid. Many were concluded to engage in this field basically because of poverty.

The researchers conducted a study about this subject matter to therefore make an evaluation of how media, specifically the internet, has become a medium for such abusive deed, and its effects to the lives of the minors involved in the said area.

Research Environment

The researchers had chosen Pasil, Cebu City as the research area of the study because, as reported, one of the biggest news that happened early this year occurred in the said area. Pasil, as perceived by many, is a swampy area with squatters who make their living out of selling fish and other marine animals available in the other markets at lower prices. Pasil is known for its fresh fishes, and for being quite notorious. One could see an assortment of people living in there.

Chapter 2
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

It was not enough for the researchers to just go over the internet and search for reliable sources of the subject matter being studied. For the researchers to fully understand how these things work and affect the people’s lives in Pasil, they had a close interview with two of the minors, involved with this kind of abusive deed, who were not under the custody of the DSWD and were not been made known yet to the authorities. Below is the flow of the interview:

The researchers asked Anna (not her real name), a 10 year old child, if she is still doing CyberSex, and she said yes, adding that her older sister too is doing it and had influenced her in doing such act. She continued telling us that the foreigners, particularly the Americans, do like children because their private areas don’t have pubic hair yet. She even reasoned out that they (referring to other minors too) are just doing this to have money, even if she knows that it is wrong and not good for her. She added that she has friends or she knows a lot of children who do the same thing, all for the money to meet their daily needs. According to her, at first, it was just her older sister who was having a chat with this American client they have when the latter proposed that if her sister shows her flesh, he will send money to her, and because of the mention of money, instinctly, her sister agreed to the American’s proposal. The researchers further asked her what she does in front of the camera, she replied, in a bit shy type, that she would have to touch herself in her private areas, stick out her tongue and goes naked. Sometimes, she does it together with her sister, if the American requests for it. She even added that there are also gays who pose in front of the camera and do masturbation to satisfy their “clients” which are usually happening during midnight. Having seen that the child was not comfortable talking about the matter anymore, the researchers asked her what she does to the money (since she mentioned that her sister would give her Php 150 for every show she gives to the American), she replied that she uses the money for buy food and to sustain her other needs. She added that her mother knows about this and was the one who told her older sister too, without their father knowing it. The money, according to her, is sent through Western Union or Xoom.

With this given information which was acquired by the researchers themselves, there is an evident spread and continuity of child exploitation in Pasil without them (minors and parents) knowing the effects it would cause the minors in the future when they are already grown ups.

Sexual abuse in childhood and/or adulthood can result in negative affect during physiological arousal (L.A. Berman, Berman,Bruck,Pawar. & Goldstein, 2001) and reduced feelings during sexual activity (Herman & Hirschman, 1997). As noted, in sexually healthy women, physiological sexual arousal is enhanced with SNS activation (Meston & Gorzalka, 1995). In contrast, in women with a history of childhood sexual abuse, physiological arousal is not enhanced with SNS activation and, in fact, may be impaired. This difference may reflect disruptions in endocrine function – in particular the hyphothalamuspituitary-adrenal axis – known to exist in women with a history of childhood sexual abuse and comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (Relli & Meston. 2006).

Chapter 3
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions

Recommendations

We recommend that after hearing such news, the National Government Officials should come up with Laws or Decrees to protect the victims (minors) and to help promote the discontinuity of such abuse; and to give punishments to persons held responsible for involving these minors in this kind of lewd activity.

We recommend that the Local Officials of Cebu City and of Barangay Pasil should come up with livelihood programs for the parents such as Recycling Garbage that would help them generate income and gradually elevate them from poverty; and free day-care services for the minors so they can have other things to do.

We also recommend that Barangay Officials of Pasil should once in awhile make some roving around the neighborhood to see and discover the further existence of such child exploitation and the likes.

We recommend the police that they should search without seizing for more cases related to this one so to stop the spread of child exploitation and to save lives of the minors.

We recommend that further researches on a related topic may allow a wider exploration and knowledge about child exploitation and such.

References

Books:

David L. Rowland & Luca Incrocci: Handbook of Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders, 2008

Websites:

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20100210-252322/NBI-rescues-3-girls--boy-paid-to-strip-in-front-of-web-camera-in-Pasil

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleid=548977

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.answers.com/topic/tcp-ip

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Child+Pornographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersex

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20100210-252322/NBI-rescues-3-girls--boy-paid-to-strip-in-front-of-web-camera-in-Pasil

References: Books: David L. Rowland & Luca Incrocci: Handbook of Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders, 2008 Websites: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20100210-252322/NBI-rescues-3-girls--boy-paid-to-strip-in-front-of-web-camera-in-Pasil http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleid=548977 http://en.wikipedia.org http://www.answers.com/topic/tcp-ip http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Child+Pornographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersex http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20100210-252322/NBI-rescues-3-girls--boy-paid-to-strip-in-front-of-web-camera-in-Pasil