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    Concept Paper: The Sexual Exploitation of Filipino Children

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    Tristan Lim

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Concept Paper: The Sexual Exploitation of Filipino Children

    Uploaded by

    Tristan Lim
    12 views5 pages

    Original Title

    GARMA_LIM_ConceptPaperOutline_EAPP

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    12 views5 pages

    Concept Paper: The Sexual Exploitation of Filipino Children

    Uploaded by

    Tristan Lim

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 5

    (14) Angel Tristan S. Lim & (11) Amber B.

    Garma 12-Miki

    CONCEPT PAPER: THE SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF FILIPINO CHILDREN

    I. INTRODUCTION (Presentation of the Issue)

    1. Child sex tourism and child cybersex trafficking are prevalent and growing

    industries in the Philippines.

    2. The factors contributing to this prevalence and growth are mainly the

    current socio-economic conditions of the country; the increase in access to cheaper

    internet and advancements in digital technology; and poor implementation of laws

    that prevent and punish crimes involving child sex tourism and child cybersex

    trafficking.

    3. Around the Philippines, hundreds of thousands of women, young girls and

    boys, and transvestites are working as prostitutes, many of them introduced to the job

    by parents or relatives as a way to earn quick and easy money for the family

    (Cantarini, 2).

    4. One of the main sources of income for the Philippines is Commercial Sex

    Work, which can be done physically (through prostitution) or non-physically (through

    internet live-cams/sex shows) both of which have many overseas

    consumers/customers (Bagley et al., 5).

    II. BODY (Discussion of Factors and Effects on Victims)

    A. Discussion of Factors

    1. Rampant poverty and unemployment drive Filipino families to force their

    children into the aforementioned industries.

    ·A study by Zafft and Tidball in 2010 surveying the Philippines’ child sex

    tourism scene emphasized the role of poverty and financial desperation in the
    perpetuation of the industry. The lack of opportunities for both education and

    employment in impoverished communities often drive young men and women,

    particularly those who are the eldest children and who are expected to become

    breadwinners for their families, to involve themselves in sex tourism. In many cases,

    the victims’ own families push them to become part of the industry (p. 9).

    2. The country’s access to cheap internet, as well as the creation of websites

    that allow untraceable correspondence between child prostitutes and foreign

    customers encourages both parties to engage in the industry. Another factor unique to

    the rise of child cybersex trafficking in the Philippines is Filipinos’ generally good

    command of the English language.

    · In 2016, Oliver Holmes published an article for international news website

    The Guardian which looked into the factors influencing the distinct rise of child

    cybersex trafficking in the Philippines. The article identifies increased internet speed

    and access throughout the country, the creation of encrypted live-streaming websites

    and cryptocurrency platforms, and the ability of Filipinos to communicate well with

    offenders as the primary factors. The article also notes that child cybersex trafficking

    in the Philippines is most often perpetrated by families rather than syndicate groups.

    (p.1)

    3. The aforementioned industries continue to operate despite there being

    national laws against child trafficking because a culture of silence surrounds the

    industries, perpetrated by both law enforcers and community members.

    Interviews with the locals of Sabang, Palawan --- a Philippine town notorious

    for being a sex tourism hub --- in a case study conducted by Ekoluoma in

    2017, showed that while most townspeople did not approve of or respect the
    industry, but also refused to report it because they knew it was the only source

    of income for numerous families in the area (p. 141).

    B. Effects on Victims

    1. Sexual exploitation at such a young age leads to a high number of often

    negative effects which can be split into two categories: psychological effects

    and physiological effects.

    2. According to Angela Cantarini, “[The children] are psychologically damaged

    and the longer they spend being a prostitute the harder it is to overcome the

    trauma.” (p.9)

    3. Aside from children being psychologically affected, children also, “catch the

    common STD Gonorrhea…” (Cantarini, 9), meaning that children who are

    sexually exploited are also more prone to Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

    III. CONCLUSION (Presentation of Solutions)

    1. Better funding for educational programs, job training and rehabilitation is

    necessary to improve the quality of life of victims.

    2. Steps must be taken in order to ensure change of environment for victims.

    3. Stronger investigation and stricter laws against perpetrators are integral to

    victims’ peace of mind and healing.

    4. Developing or uplifting poor communities where sexual exploitation is

    rampant, in order to break cycle of poverty that leads citizens to resort to illegal and

    undignified sources of income, is the most important solution to put an end to child

    sex tourism and cybersex trafficking.


    REFERENCES

    Bagley, Christopher, et al. “Adolescent Girls Offered Alternatives to Commercial Sexual

    Exploitation: A Case Study from the Philippines.” ​Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation

    and Violence,​ vol. 2, no. 2, 2017, doi:10.23860/dignity.2017.02.01.08.

    Cantarini, Andrea. “Child Prostitution in the Philippines”. 2013

    Ekoluoma, Mari-Elina. “Everyday Life in a Philippine Sex Tourism Town”. ​Uppsala Studies

    in Cultural Anthropology. ​2017. DiVA Portal,

    uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1064095/FULLTEXT01.pdf .

    Holmes, Oliver. “How child sexual abuse became a family business in the Philippines”. ​The

    Guardian, ​2016,

    www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/31/live-streaming-child-sex-abuse-family-business-p

    hilippines​ .

    Zafft, Carmen; Tidball, Sriyani. “A Survey of Child Sex Tourism in the Philippines”. ​Second

    Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking. 2​ 010. Digital Commons at

    University of Nebraska-Lincoln,

    digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=humtrafconf2 .

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