Manila: In a bid to get rid of the scourge of cyberporn, government will now require local Internet service providers to install software that will filter out websites with pornographic content.
During a recent forum in Metro Manila, Samuel Sabile, networks and facilities division officer-in-charge of the National Telecommunications Commission, said government would compel Internet service providers (ISP) as well as telecommunication companies to install software that can monitor data transmissions containing pornographic content.
The same software will also be used if a subscriber line is being used for cybersex.
Reports said the monitoring could be done not just at the ISP and telecom service provider level, but also at the village level where local officers will be given authority to monitor Internet transmissions containing pornographic material.
Pornography is banned under the country’s laws and criminals are utilising new technologies to prey on Filipinos especially underage ones.
During the forum “Child Abuse and Exploitation in CyberSpace,” an NTC memorandum circular had been issued last January 30 mandating ISPs and telecommunications companies to install porn filtering software. Likewise, the same computer programme can detect if a subscriber is engaging in cybersex using webcams.
Earlier, the Terre des Hommes warned that the Philippines is fast becoming a haven for cybersex operators who recruit Filipino children and adults.
In an earlier interview with Gulf News, Ronald Aguto, head agent of the National Bureau of Investigation’s Cybercrime Division said going after cybercriminals, particularly, cybersex den operators are becoming an increasingly complex task.
He said that previously, perpetrators of such illegal activities function only from one particular territory. Now he said, the cyberporn operators’ realm often extending beyond borders. Operations of cybersex syndicates are now spread over different locations making it more difficult to pin them down and make arrest in one location.
He said that in most cases they had handled, arrests would be made in one locale while the rest of the syndicate operating in another location would be able to escape.
Earlier, parents who force their children into engaging in cybersex for money or otherwise, had been warned by the government that they stand getting arrested for violations of laws against child abuse and pornography.
Presidential Spokerman Edwin Lacierda said elders who force their own children into engaging in cybersex will face the force of the law.
According to Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa, head of the Philippine police’s anti-cybercrime unit, they had found out that the parents of the victimised children themselves were sometimes involved in forcing the minors to engage in cybersex.
