AS reported an editorial article on November 1 The Manila Timesthe Norwegian National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos) recently released a report on direct command-based sexual abuse and exploitation of children. The report is the result of a deeper investigation into Norwegian men’s purchase of online sexual abuse material, especially from the Philippines.
Norwegian police estimate that last year somewhere between 400 and 2,000 Norwegian men paid to watch one or more children perform sexual acts as specified and personally instructed by the buyer. The victims are usually girls, between 11 and 13 years old, but babies have also been victims.
The Philippines appears to be the preferred source or location of real-time sexual abuse material for these Norwegian men. Previous reports and investigations into online child sexual abuse and exploitation (OSAEC) have identified the Philippines as a global hotspot for OSAEC. The main causes of this type of crime include: poverty, an English-speaking population, access to affordable and stable internet services, and a well-developed money transfer system. Exposure to international tourism and certain cultural characteristics have also been mentioned.
Norwegian police point out that when it comes to investigating online sexual abuse of minors – crimes that usually go unreported – Philippine privacy rules appear to protect the perpetrator rather than the victim. “Due to strict privacy regulations in the Philippines when it comes to releasing information about victims of sexual abuse, it is difficult for Norwegian police to obtain accurate knowledge about the victims.”
The first contact between buyer and seller usually takes place through adult porn websites. The seller offers himself (“sexual content with adults”), but then offers children. “Experience with Norwegian cases shows that the initiative to abuse a child often lies with the seller,” Kripos notes. This means that not all buyers are looking for child pornography, but it is offered by the seller. It gets worse: the seller is often the mother of the child or children offered for abuse.
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This reminded me of what a Danish retiree told me years ago. He had lost count of the times parents had presented their minor daughters to him. But I’m not interested in children, he told me. Apparently some men like to try it when the opportunity presents itself. Decades ago, I heard about foreign tourists who, while on a sightseeing tour in Cebu, were approached by locals offering their children. After the tour, the male tourists returned to the site. Yes, prostitution of Filipino children by their own parents was widespread long before the advent of information technology.
According to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (April 2023), Cebu was the top destination of OSAEC-related international remittances from July 2020 to December 2022. During the period under investigation, 13,123 suspicious remittances to Cebu were reported with a total value of P65.7 million. This averaged 437 remittances per month, compared to 99 per month from January 2019 to June 2020. Cebu saw poverty incidence rise to new heights in 2021-2022. In contrast, Pampanga, second to Cebu in 2020-2022 and number 1 in 2019-2020, has one of the lowest poverty rates in the country. This means that while poverty is a major factor in online child sexual abuse, it does not explain everything.
Overall, international remittances make up nearly 90 percent of all OSAEC-related transactions, and the US is by far the largest source of remittances. The actual numbers of OSAEC-related transactions, from both international and domestic sources, are likely much higher than reported, as payments are disguised as ‘friend’s grocery allowance’ and the like.
According to the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, US companies reported 2.7 million cases of uploading suspected child sexual abuse material in the Philippines in 2023. This is down from the 3.2 million cases reported in 2021, but still double the 1.3 million in 2020. Only India led to more reports than the Philippines.
Norwegian police conclude that despite being rape under Norwegian law, online child sexual abuse and exploitation is a transaction forged over the Internet in a manner similar to the buying and selling of ordinary goods. It is harmless, parents think: there is no physical contact. It’s just acting. About $25 to $100 for a few minutes of having your underage daughter perform lewd acts in front of a camera is considered easy money without any fees. Bills can be paid, supplies can be purchased and everyone is happy. So where’s the crime?
But child victims are left with deep emotional scars that may never heal. Some victims will victimize others. Others fall into substance abuse. How can we not see child sexual exploitation as a crime against the human structure?
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