MANILA -- As worldwide attention on webcam child sex tourism snowballs, the Sweetie campaign in the Philippines also intensifies.
In 2013, international anti-child exploitation organization Terre des Hommes Netherlands unveiled Sweetie, a virtual 10-year-old Filipina girl with a very distinct task of identifying pedophiles around the globe in selected public chatrooms.
In a span of 10 weeks and in 19 public chatrooms, Sweetie identified at least 1,000 pedophiles. Of which, 8 known convictions have taken place in countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Denmark. (See Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWLTEkryAQg#action=share)
The United Nations and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said that at least 750,000 pedophiles are online at any given time. As such, tens of thousands of Filipino children fall prey to the perils of online pornography.
Based on initial investigation conducted by Terre des Hommes, Filipino children seem to have an extraordinary appeal to both casual and hardcore pedophiles wanting to offer financial rewards to children forced to perform sexually in front of the camera. After trying several other nationalities, Terre des Hommes concluded that reception was overwhelming when Sweetie divulged her being Filipino.
To step up the game, Sweetie has advanced. Public chatrooms will no longer be monitored manually. Instead, chatbots will go online 24/7 to patrol the cyberspace and intervene before the crime is committed.
Sweetie 2.0, as the project is called, is now on its final phase of development and full operations are set to happen by April 2016.
In a collaborative effort with national and international specialists, Terre des Hommes works on an innovative software to be implemented worldwide to combat online streaming of child porn materials.
Bong Arquiza, communications and advocacy officer of Terre des Hommes, emphasizes how this will be aligned to both domestic and international legal frameworks.
“Sweetie 2.0 will definitely be compliant with legal standards, locally and overseas. Much as we believe that a free and open source internet should be in place, the internet does not have to be lawless. Sweetie may be controversial but this innovation is very crucial and essential especially for the Filipino children,” he said.
Arquiza further stressed that “webcam child sex tourism is normally the precursor of child trafficking as these pedophiles would eventually come to the country to meet the victims.”
Meanwhile, the Philippine Country Office of Terre des Hommes has launched a simultaneous online collection of signatures to compel the Philippine government to take a stand against webcam child sex tourism by delivering a public statement in an international gathering condemning this new trend as well as refusing to tolerate the victimization of Filipino kids through this scheme. (See petition here: www.tinyurl.com/SweetiePHPetition) Terre des Hommes is also conducting campus caravans across the country to promote the campaign.
Terre des Hommes’ multifaceted effort to strengthen the online protection of children is coupled with a research project on the psychosocial effects on victims of webcam child sex tourism and an international conference on the same, which both is expected to also happen in the first quarter of 2016. (PR)