Forum on child pornography held

CEBU, Philippines - Barangay officials, Internet café owners and youth organizations from the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu gathered yesterday in a forum to discuss the increasing problem of child pornography.

Open forums and discussions were made to help get ideas from the participants coming from 26 barangays in the three cities to be able to ask for their suggestions on probable actions to be made to stop child-pornography.

Organizing groups of the forum were Kaabag Sugbo, Share a Child Movement, Stop Abuse of Minors Association, Lihok Pilipina, Visayan Forum Foundation Inc., International Justice Mission and the Department of Labor and Employment who helped fund the program.

Liza Tumulak, project officer of Bantay Banay, a program of Lihok Pilipina, said that they saw an urgent need to put a stop to child pornography since they observed that the cases are increasing over the years.

She said that through the forum, they were also able to get insights from the children as well, who gave their own suggestions.

Tumulak said that some youths said that parents should be well-aware of the activities of their children. They said parents should look closely at the sites that their kids are browsing in the Internet, said Tumulak.

Also, it was suggested that barangay officials have their men monitor Internet cafes in their respective areas of responsibility as their help in preventing children from visiting sites that are not for them, especially sites where children are asked to do inappropriate things.

Strict curfews in the barangays would also help protect the children and keep them away from activities that would harm them. Audissa, 15; Gretchen 17; and Rochel, 13 all of barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City, said that they were happy that they attended the program because they did not have any idea of cases involving child pornography and the rights of the children that are not protected.

“Naa gyud daiy mi katungod,” they said.

The three also advised to kids their age not to trust people immediately and to explore their rights and be aware of what to do and what not to.

VFFI spokeswoman Ligaya Abadesco said that this was one way to tap the barangays and let them know of the dangers the children are facing, especially in Internet cafes where they may be exposed to a lot of bad influences.

Abadesco said that aside from the bill on the protection of children from pornography passed by Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Cebu City councilor Lea Ouano Japson is also passing an ordinance on the same matter.

She said that they are fully supporting the ordinance and the bill and are looking forward for the approval.

Aside from this, the law prohibiting Internet cafes near schools should be strictly implemented, Abadesco said.

Richard Rabanes, an attendant of an Internet café in Lapu-Lapu city said that they strictly implement rules in their café; students can only play at a specified time and no opening of pornographic sites.

Rabanes said that they have an application wherein sites like these are banned, but aside from this, they also monitor the sites browsed by their customers. — AJ de la Torre/BRP (THE FREEMAN)