Monday, September 08, 2008 Anti-child porn alliance focuses on parents
MOST child pornography cases involve parents who sell their children to recruiters to earn money, the Anti-Child Pornography Alliance (Acap) said.
Payment is very cheap, with families that live in urban areas who badly need money usually giving consent for lewd pictures to be taken of their children for less than P100.
In most cases, the Acap said, a child earns just P5 or P10 for posing nude in front of the camera.
What is worse, said Acap-National’s Arlene Brosas, is that both the parents and the children do not know what is really going on. “They just badly need the money, they do not see anything wrong with that,” she said.
This mostly happens in urban areas where poverty is widespread. “And you would never expect that in those areas there are Internet cafes or that child pornography happens there,” added Broses.
She said culprits usually operate in two locations, which is either at home using a personal computer or in Internet cafes.
Dr. Leny Ocasiones of Acap-Cebu also said that though Internet cafes are public places, there are cases of children being made to pose in front of web cameras there.
“Of course it’s not impossible. What about the Internet cafes that have cubicles and private rooms? That’s where they mostly operate,” she said.
No excuses
Brosas said that while parents might need money, gaining profit by having their children pose nude or scantily dressed in front of the camera is inexcusable.
“Parents might think there is nothing wrong, but there is. There is an obvious problem in their values,” she said.
To address the growing problem, the Acap is promoting anti-child pornography in schools and the community.
At the same time, the organization is pressuring national legislators to pass a law against child pornography.
“This is for people to be aware of what is really going on so that they can protect their children,” said Brosas.
“The child might not know now what is going on, but once they do, the effects are drastic. It affects the morality of the child. And it gives the child low self-esteem,” said Ocasiones.
Acap provides counseling to victimized children to make their reintegration into the community easier.
Here in Cebu, it will conduct a study to get baseline data on child pornography practices.
The data will be used to support the campaign for the speedy passage of the anti-child pornography law. (EPB)
