Rescue of four minors from online sexual exploitation by Women and Children Protection Centre in the Philippines. - Photo: International Justice Mission
SINGAPORE: Cassie (not her real name) attended school by day, and posed nude in front of leering men on webcams by night.
The 12-year-old Filipina was coerced to be an online sex model in Manila by a man who promised her family to pay for her education.
If she refused to comply, he would hit and forcibly undress her.
This went on for five years before she was rescued by police and human rights organisation International Justice Mission (IJM).
Now 26, Cassie is still scarred from the experience.
She told The Straits Times: “I hated myself because I felt that I was a dirty woman, because I ‘allowed’ these customers (and) my trafficker to abuse me.”
But Cassie was a child, like the thousands of others exploited in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) cases.
Most people know CSAM as child pornography, and experts told ST the amount disseminated over the internet has been increasing in recent years.
A global threat assessment in 2023 found an 87 per cent rise in such reports since 2019.
The scenes depicted in such material are intensely graphic and harrowing, with some involving children performing sex acts on each other or being tortured.
The Covid-19 pandemic worsened the situation.
Sinni Lim, IJM’s regional strategy and impact director in Asia Pacific, told ST via e-mail that reports from Interpol and Europol noted a surge in demand for such material then.
Experts agreed that lockdowns and social distancing made it easier for online abuse to happen, she said.
A 2023 report by the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children wrote that during the pandemic, offenders took to the internet more often and had more opportunities to exploit victims remotely.
Children who stayed home due to lockdowns had an increased risk of being exploited online, or being confined at home with their abuser, noted the report.
ST attended a training session in Hanoi, Vietnam, in October about reporting on online child safety issues.
Speakers included a child protection specialist from Unicef Vietnam, and a representative from the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union. Participants included 30 journalists from South-east Asia.
The speakers said offenders who download child sexual abuse material come from all over the world, and Singapore is no exception.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said in September that since 2020, there had been about 140 police investigations into cases involving child sexual abuse material.
The offence of possessing such material came into force in January 2020. Offenders face a mandatory jail term of up to five years, and can also be fined or caned.
According to figures provided by the Singapore judiciary, the number of cases has been climbing since 2020. There was one case that year, but none in 2021. It jumped to five cases in 2022, then seven in 2023.
Offenders were jailed between four weeks and 32 months.
Singaporeans have also been nabbed in police raids. Between February and March, 28 men were arrested in Singapore in a multinational police operation targeting online child sexual exploitation and abuse material.
Four Singaporean children were among the victims.
Adam Donald, the head of child protection and technology at Ecpat, a human rights group working to end the sexual exploitation of children, said these offences are a global epidemic.
He added: “Every year, we see the number of reports of this material online rising. We see more and more reports on grooming.”
Unicef child protection specialist Nguyen Ngoc Anh said there are online networks which exchange, buy and share such material.
These predators search for vulnerable young people online and groom them to send sexually explicit material of themselves, he added. “They make friends with young people, be friendly with them, pretend they like and love them, and ask them for some pictures (in exchange for) gifts and rewards.”
Donald said these explicit photos are shared, or used to blackmail the children.
“It’s a crime twice over. It’s a crime when it was taken, and it’s a crime every single time someone views that image because that child is revictimised,” he added.
Sadly, strangers are not the only threats.
Lim estimates that in over 80 per cent of the cases in the Philippines, the online sexual exploitation of children is facilitated by parents or relatives.
She added that 41 per cent of the victims are abused by their biological parents and 42 per cent by other relatives.
Cassie’s mother had been a housekeeper for the man who exploited her, in their village in Mindanao. He called her beautiful and offered to send her to school in Manila, where he exploited her without her parents’ knowledge.
There were at least five other child victims in the house with Cassie. The youngest was a one-year-old.
Lim said these adults could act as local facilitators who communicate with offenders from countries such as the US, Australia and Sweden, who pay them to live stream the abuse of children in real time.
“Many (who engage) in online sexual exploitation of children are motivated by the lure of easy money, as earnings from this activity often far exceed those from regular employment,” she added.
She said while exact earnings are hard to quantify, traffickers can earn substantial sums, especially when multiple offenders are involved.
Lim noted that these offenders often justified their actions by saying strangers were not really abusing their children, as they were not physically touching them.
She said: “(But) the abuse is still physically occurring. In fact, because the abuse is happening at the hands of a parent or family friend, the resulting trauma is often more complex.”
A specialist in Interpol’s crimes against children unit, who requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of her work, said such child victims may self-harm or attempt suicide.
Interpol combats the crime through its International Child Sexual Exploitation database, where more than 70 countries share images and videos of child sexual abuse they uncovered.
This helps local law enforcement identify victims and rescue them quicker.
So far, the database holds over 4.9 million photos and videos. More than 45,000 victims have been identified.
The Interpol specialist said that in a case in 2024, the database enabled local authorities to save a four-day-old baby who was sexually abused.
Supply can be stopped by curbing demand.
There are psychologists in Singapore who are assisting those who seek help after they were arrested for viewing such material.
Dr Sandor Heng, a senior clinical psychologist at Promises Healthcare, is handling two such cases. He said many with paedophilic tendencies do not seek help voluntarily because they feel ashamed.
He added: “One client actually felt relieved when he was caught, as that was the only way for it to come to light.”
Dr Geraldine Tan, director and principal psychologist at The Therapy Room, said some offenders might have experienced a traumatic childhood or have low self-esteem, which causes them to want to dominate over someone younger.
Dr Heng said he helps offenders with regulating their emotions and understanding the consequences of their actions, which minimises the risk of reoffending.
Cassie, who went through a decade of counselling after her rescue, now has a degree and a full-time job. She is also one of the founders of the Philippine Survivor Network, a group which raises awareness of online child sexual exploitation.
Her abuser was sentenced to life imprisonment.
She said: “He can never touch or hurt us anymore.”
Smiling, she added: “I’m very happy with the woman I’ve become.” - The Straits Times/ANN
Keeping your child safe online
Any child using the internet is at risk of being exploited by sexual predators.
Philip Victor, managing director of technology advisory firm Welchman Keen, told journalists during the Hanoi session that educators, policymakers and parents must collaborate to protect children.
Online child safety tips:
Privacy protection: Set your children’s social media accounts to private instead of public, to make it more difficult for strangers to access their information. Turn off geolocation for selected mobile apps to prevent their location from being shared.
Parental controls: Turn on parental control settings on social media platforms. Restricted Mode on TikTok limits exposure to content unsuitable for children, while supervision tools on Instagram allow parents to see which accounts their child follows.
Ignore, block strangers: Online predators can approach children with compliments and gifts on gaming sites and social media platforms. Teach children to block or ignore such messages, and not talk about sex with strangers.
Talk to your kids: Topics like sextortion may be deemed as taboo, and some children fear telling an adult when they have a suspicious encounter online. Assure them they will not be judged speaking to you, so they know who to turn to. - Source: Philip Victor, Welchman Keen
