Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin on Friday urged the government to adopt a whole-of-nation approach to combat the rising cases of child exploitation online.
Garin made the call after the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center revealed that the Philippines ranked second in the world when it comes to online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC).
“This is alarming. Children should be sent to school and not being forced into situations like this. We need to look into why the Philippines seem to be an easy target,” she said.
The lawmaker said the government must act upon the situation and emphasized that it “should not be reduced to mere data and statistics.”
“This is a calling for a whole of nation approach. Awareness is very important to prevent the prevalence of child exploitation and illegal acts,” Garin said.
The House appropriations committee vice chairperson said it is vital to give full support to the Department of Justice to detect and catch the perpetrators of the illegal acts.
Earlier, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy said that they lack necessary tools in order to identify the perpetrators of the crimes.