Rizal 2nd District Rep. Fidel Nograles thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for turning his attention to the rising cases of child pornography in the country, which have reached a record high during the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine last year.
“Nagpapasalamat tayo na si Pangulong Duterte na mismo ang nag-direkta para magkaroon ng agarang aksyon laban sa child pornography. Nananawagan tayo sa Kongreso na gawin din ang makakaya para matigil na ang pagsasamantala sa ating kabataan,” the neophyte lawmaker said.
The President recently ordered the National Telecommunications Commission to impose sanctions against internet service providers that have failed to stop online child pornography, as transaction reports related to online sexual exploitation rose to 47,937 in 2020 from 19,000 in 2019.
“Nananawagan tayo sa Kongreso na gawin din ang makakaya para matigil na ang pagsasamantala sa ating kabataan.”
The Anti-Money Laundering Council also said that suspicious transactions amounting to P113.1 million related to child pornography were reported in the first half of 2020. The figure is almost double the P65.8 million posted in 2019.
The solon also again urged Congress to pass a bill that would strengthen the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 (Republic Act 9775).
The Harvard-trained lawyer said that at present, internet service providers “can only do so much,” as a conflicting provision in the law prevents them from taking more proactive steps to curb child pornography.
Nograles filed House Bill No. 7633 or the Anti-Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children Act of 2020 to amend Section 9 of RA 9775, on September last year after the Department of Justice reported that cases of child pornography had exponentially increased.
Using data from the U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the DOJ noted that there were 279,166 cases of online child sex abuse in the Philippines from March 1 to May 24, 2020, compared to 76,561 cases during the same period in 2019.
This represented a 264.63 percent increase in cases, or more than 202,605 incidents.
The bill mainly seeks to amend Section 9 of RA 9775.
The said section allows internet service providers to install software that could block access to and transmittal of child pornography and notify authorities within seven days of detection of any internet address that may contain child pornography.
Nograles filed House Bill No. 7633 or the Anti-Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children Act of 2020 to amend Section 9 of RA 9775, on September last year after the Department of Justice reported that cases of child pornography had exponentially increased.
However, it also states that “nothing in this section may be construed to require an ISP to engage in the monitoring of any user, subscriber or customer or the content of any communication of any such person,” which telecom operators have said effectively hampers them from taking action, in particular monitoring and blocking child pornography websites.
If Nograles’ bill is passed, the first two paragraphs of Section 9 would be amended as follows,
“Section 9. Duties of an Information and Communication Technology Service Providers (ICTSP). – All Information and Communication Technology Service Providers (ICTSP) shall install available technology, program or software to ensure that access to or transmittal of any form of child pornography will be blocked or filtered.
All ICTSP shall notify the Philippine National Police (PNP) or the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) within seven (7) days from obtaining facts and circumstances that any form of child pornography is being committed or has been committed using its server or facility or platform. All ICTSP shall maintain the privacy of the data captured relevant to this section while complying with notification requirements of this section. Provided, That no ISP shall be held civilly liable for damages on account of any notice given in good faith in compliance with this section. Provided further that the data captured solely for complying to this Section shall be exempt from the application of the Data Privacy Act.”
The bill also proposes that foreign nationals who have committed any sex-related offenses be barred from entering the Philippines.