Rep. Garcia pushes stronger law to protect children from sexual abuse, online exploitation.

Local

By Le Antojado

CEBU 3rd District Rep. Karen Hope Garcia is pushing for an updated measure or law to better protect Filipino children from sexual abuse and online exploitation.

This is as she noted that existing child protection laws like Republic Act 7610, the Anti-OSAEC Act, and the Cybercrime Prevention Act have not kept up with the internet today, where social media platforms are as powerful and as widespread as they are now.

Speaking at the launch of the CyberShield Against Sexual Exploitation (CASE) in a Cebu City hotel on Wednesday, Sept. 23, Garcia said that 20% of internet users aged 12-17 years old, or around two million children, were already exposed to some online sexual abuse and exploitation.

“And for every day they remain behind, the consequence is not a mere statistic. It is a child, somewhere in this country, at this very moment, being exploited through the very device their parents gave them to help them learn,” Garcia said.

Early this year, Garcia filed House Bill No. 9448, or the Child Online Data Protection and Safety Amendment Act, which seeks to ban social media platforms from using children’s data for targeted ads or profiling. Under the proposed measure, parents’ consent must be sought first before collecting the data.

The lawmaker also called for more resources and funding for cybercrime investigators for their investigations and faster resolution of cases in courts so as not to let victims or survivors wait for years before the case ends.

Garcia emphasized that child protection does not only fall on parents, technology and social media platforms must also be held responsible, as many online offenders operate across borders.

“We often describe our children as the future of this nation. (But) they are equally the nation’s present, living at this very moment within a digital world we built without first asking whether it was safe for them,” Garcia told the audience at the event.

The launching of CyberShield Against Sexual Exploitation (Case) was organized by Winley dela Fuente, and attended by law enforcement, local officials, advocates, social workers, and other stakeholders to promote digital safety, awareness, protection, and justice for child protection.(MyTVCebu)