Law banning child pornography drafted
By Vincent Cabreza - Inquirer
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -- Child rights advocates have drafted the first law banning child pornography from the Philippines, which was inspired by the 10-year-old child protection laws of predominantly Catholic Ireland.
They have also convinced Benguet Board Member Juan Nazarro to draw up and file the first local anti child-pornography ordinance this month, which is aimed at curbing the distribution of child pornography through the Internet, DVDs and CDs, and cellular phones.
The new measure punishes people for owning pornographic materials featuring children as well as those who produce and distribute these items.
But experts are now concerned how these laws will be enforced.
The latest study commissioned by the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) reveals that many parents and their children have no clue what child pornography is all about, said study author Arnie Trinidad, a sociologist of the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies.
Trinidad said some parents, in the study's survey portion, even treated the government's decision to promote sex education in schools as child pornography.
Louie Maranan, executive director of the Philippine Legislators' Action Committee for Children (PLACC), said the police confirmed in their study that law enforcers would more likely release a person arrested for engaging in child pornography because they would not know what crime to charge him other than the requisite child abuse case or sexual impropriety.
"They admitted [in the study] that police would just extort money from [the suspects] before releasing them. It is a study the police shared with PLACC to help us put together the law," Maranan said during the launch last week of the Anti-Child Pornography Alliance of Metro Baguio.
He said law enforcers mistakenly assume that child pornography deals with three- to six-year-old children, when 16- and 17-year-old teenagers are often the pornographers' real victims.
In the four years that activists have campaigned for better law enforcement against child abuse, police have responded to only 30 cases of child pornography, PLACC reports showed.
Maranan said police have cracked down on child pornography clients in Germany and Ireland and have discovered them accessing pornography offered by sources in the Philippines.
"But what did our country do? Nothing because we have no law [explaining why it is a crime]," he said.
Deirdre MacCarthy, an Irish lawyer and a consultant for the People's Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance (Preda) Foundation in Olongapo City, said Irish laws are simple and straightforward, and may be a good model for the Philippine draft law against child pornography.
She said Irish laws ban images that encourage or suggest "unlawful sexual activity" with children, regardless of how these images are transmitted or replicated.
She said even adults who portray children in a sexually explicit act are liable to be charged with child pornography.
She said credit card companies helped Irish police crack open her country's child porn syndicates.
But advocates said they have not received the same support from Philippine Internet service providers and credit card firms.
Trinidad said some child rights advocates have a tendency to "moralize," which sometimes put their crusade in conflict with civil rights groups.
But MacCarthy said while her country has protected free speech asserted by adult pornography, it has given their law enforcers more room when protecting children.
Trinidad said what they discovered about the industry in the Philippines may change the public's attitude towards pornography.
For example, children and teenagers involved in the sex trade and who were interviewed for the study believed that child pornography distributed as photographs or through Internet chat rooms is the better choice between two evils because the alternative is engaging in solicited sex.
Trinidad said it confirmed his 2005 study where "people largely thought that child pornography is an accessory to a graver crime of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of children … or are mere testaments to sexual abuse," and are therefore lesser offenses.
"People make light [of child pornography] … little realizing that [sexually explicit] photographs or video are permanent [images] of a child's rape, and people are cashing in every time the video or photograph is viewed," he said.
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -- Child rights advocates have drafted the first law banning child pornography from the Philippines, which was inspired by the 10-year-old child protection laws of predominantly Catholic Ireland.
They have also convinced Benguet Board Member Juan Nazarro to draw up and file the first local anti child-pornography ordinance this month, which is aimed at curbing the distribution of child pornography through the Internet, DVDs and CDs, and cellular phones.
The new measure punishes people for owning pornographic materials featuring children as well as those who produce and distribute these items.
But experts are now concerned how these laws will be enforced.
The latest study commissioned by the United Nations Children Fund (Unicef) reveals that many parents and their children have no clue what child pornography is all about, said study author Arnie Trinidad, a sociologist of the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies.
Trinidad said some parents, in the study's survey portion, even treated the government's decision to promote sex education in schools as child pornography.
Louie Maranan, executive director of the Philippine Legislators' Action Committee for Children (PLACC), said the police confirmed in their study that law enforcers would more likely release a person arrested for engaging in child pornography because they would not know what crime to charge him other than the requisite child abuse case or sexual impropriety.
"They admitted [in the study] that police would just extort money from [the suspects] before releasing them. It is a study the police shared with PLACC to help us put together the law," Maranan said during the launch last week of the Anti-Child Pornography Alliance of Metro Baguio.
He said law enforcers mistakenly assume that child pornography deals with three- to six-year-old children, when 16- and 17-year-old teenagers are often the pornographers' real victims.
In the four years that activists have campaigned for better law enforcement against child abuse, police have responded to only 30 cases of child pornography, PLACC reports showed.
Maranan said police have cracked down on child pornography clients in Germany and Ireland and have discovered them accessing pornography offered by sources in the Philippines.
"But what did our country do? Nothing because we have no law [explaining why it is a crime]," he said.
Deirdre MacCarthy, an Irish lawyer and a consultant for the People's Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance (Preda) Foundation in Olongapo City, said Irish laws are simple and straightforward, and may be a good model for the Philippine draft law against child pornography.
She said Irish laws ban images that encourage or suggest "unlawful sexual activity" with children, regardless of how these images are transmitted or replicated.
She said even adults who portray children in a sexually explicit act are liable to be charged with child pornography.
She said credit card companies helped Irish police crack open her country's child porn syndicates.
But advocates said they have not received the same support from Philippine Internet service providers and credit card firms.
Trinidad said some child rights advocates have a tendency to "moralize," which sometimes put their crusade in conflict with civil rights groups.
But MacCarthy said while her country has protected free speech asserted by adult pornography, it has given their law enforcers more room when protecting children.
Trinidad said what they discovered about the industry in the Philippines may change the public's attitude towards pornography.
For example, children and teenagers involved in the sex trade and who were interviewed for the study believed that child pornography distributed as photographs or through Internet chat rooms is the better choice between two evils because the alternative is engaging in solicited sex.
Trinidad said it confirmed his 2005 study where "people largely thought that child pornography is an accessory to a graver crime of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of children … or are mere testaments to sexual abuse," and are therefore lesser offenses.
"People make light [of child pornography] … little realizing that [sexually explicit] photographs or video are permanent [images] of a child's rape, and people are cashing in every time the video or photograph is viewed," he said.
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