A NON-GOVERNMENT organization, advocating for the protection of women and children, is alarmed with the proliferation of Facebook pages like "Davao Spotted" and "Davao Viral" that feature young people, who are seen as good looking, as a form of "exploitation."
Talikala-Davao, in an issued statement posted on its Facebook page on Thursday, July 16, said these pages "explicitly demean women, girls, boys and men reducing them to sexual objects."
The group said the pages' posts of pictures and their terms used are in violations of the standards of Facebook.
Talikala is calling law officials to immediately take action in tracing the page administrator of these pages "for their blatant violation of privacy and sexual contents."
"We call on the public not to subscribe, like or share these FB (Facebook) Pages as our message that we the people of Davao do not tolerate these practices which violate human rights [sic]," the NGO said.
Talikala-Davao Executive Director Jeanette Ampog told SunStar Davao in a phone interview that they received a complaint from a person, whose sibling, a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), was posted in Davao Viral.
According to the complainant, the page posted a photo of his sibling and other gay and women tagged as "mirang" or prostitute.
While the complainant confirmed that the sibling is working as a prostitute, Ampog said it is still not right for the page to use such words, which traumatized the victims.
"Very degrading ilang mga gigamit nga caption, nga nagresulta hinuon aron ibash ug mapakaulawan ang mga naa sa picture. Isa pa, walay consent gikan sa owner nga gamiton iyang pic for that purpose, nga medyo alarming kaayo (The page used degrading words in their caption, which resulted to victims being bashed and discriminated. Another thing is that there was no consent from the owner to use these images, which we find alarming)," Ampog said.
She also said these pages are invading the privacy of the people they feature on their page.
She added she sees no sense of the existence of these pages.
"What is their purpose of featuring these individuals on their pages? While they find it entertaining, pero (but) it also attracts people with utter sexual remarks. These pages added danger for women and children," Ampog said, adding they are "indirectly" promoting prostitution.
She said they already reached out to the Davao City Police Office Women and Children Protection Desk (DCPO-WCPD) and other police offices to look into the page admins.
DCPO spokesperson Captain Rose Aguilar, meanwhile, said they have already coordinated with the WCPD and the Davao City Anti-Cyber Crime Unit to detect the page admins of the account.
While she said they have not received any complainant on this matter, she said they are going to look into the matter.
Aguilar said while the Cybercrime Unit will still have to investigate it, perpetrators might face charges in violation of the Republic Act 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, and Republic Act 7610 or the “Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act.”