“The Anti-OSAEC Law will not only prevent people from committing these heinous crimes but will also make internet platforms, service providers, and internet cafes accountable…’
FILIPINO children, especially those belonging to middle-class and rich families, now have access to cellphones, laptops and other devices that enable them to surf the internet. Like any new technological tool, the internet is a two-way street that has the capability to bring good and evil into the home, exposing users both young and old to sensitive or dangerous materials.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 created the situation that children are confined to their homes for so long and for many, the internet and mass media are their only access to the outside world. Children, therefore, are most vulnerable to attempts by various online lowlife to take advantage of their young minds.
The coming opening of face-to-face classes in schools (some schools have already begun this normal instruction mode) is expected to wean away young children from the addiction that is the internet. But still, parents and government officials should take the defensive stance against online abuse involving children as victims.
That is the objective of the new law, the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) which was passed by the 18th Congress and lapsed into law without the President signing it last July 29.
Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas was first to cite and express gratitude that the OSAEC measure has become a law. The representative of the pro-women party-list group said this development is “a huge win for child rights advocates and victims of abuse, who have long been lobbying for this bill amid the rampant online child sexual abuses in the Philippines.”
“The Anti-OSAEC Law will not only prevent people from committing these heinous crimes but will also make internet platforms, service providers, and internet cafes accountable should they fail in making the digital space safe for children,” Brosas said. We note, too, that the new law institutes an “offenders registry” which will list down convicted sexual offenders of children and provides for stiffer penalties of imprisonment from six months up to lifetime jail term.
Supporters of this advocacy in civil society and the private sectors have urged the government to lose no time in coming up with the rules and regulations implementing the new anti-OSAEC law. Such speedy concern will relay the message to everybody that President Bongbong Marcos is serious in fighting child abuse, human trafficking and sexual offenses.
