EDITORIAL - Cyberporn is the lookout of everybody

That three young girls were rescued from yet another cyber pornography operation in the municipality of Cordova underscores both the difficulty in cracking down on this form of crime, and the utter lows to which have sunk the moral sensibilities of the adult people who engage in this kind of crime. Moreover, it also puts an unflattering focus on why this aberration seems to take root in this particular town, and from where it occasionally spills over to its neighbor Lapu-Lapu City.

Just why is cyberporn such a tough nut to crack? For starters, there is a false sense of detachment by those who engage in them from some sense of moral obligation or pang of conscience. The main driver of this feeling of detachment is the fact that the small children used in these operations are not themselves getting physically harmed.

Cyberporn is essentially a video- or photo-based operation wherein the only participation of the child victim is to model for still or moving pictures which are then sold online to sex-depraved individuals or groups all over the world. This "sense of safety" is what is so overwhelming in the decisions made relative to the operation.

This is the reason why even the very mothers of these small children feel no qualms about submitting to the urge of earning quick dollars. Nobody touches the children except their own motherly hands. Besides, the foreign clientele consist of strangers they do not get to meet in their daily lives. In other words, everything is essentially private and largely anonymous.

And that is another thing that is really going for these operations. The privacy and anonymity make it very hard for the authorities to uncover the crimes that are taking place inside innocent-looking homes. And that is why there is almost no end to the shock once an operation is discovered. Often, the general comment is about no one ever expecting such a monstrosity to be going on behind such innocent-looking walls.

This phenomenon is therefore too difficult to stop or stem if entrusted to the authorities alone. It needs the total involvement of the communities wherein such operations go on. Every single member of these communities must act as his or her own personal watcher, lookout, or even spy. But everyone must get involved. For apathy has a way of allowing the infection to spread, and spread to where you do not want them to be.