The Philippines has long been known to be a country with high rates of sexual exploitation and tourism. In the recent years, with the evolution of technology and the increasing access of people to the internet all around the world, the sexual exploitation industry has also changed its business to become more digital. According to Philippines private investigators, the crimes and abuses committed in this business are very damaging and have multiplied due to increased criminal activity.

Poverty has been a factor that has triggered online sexual abuse of minors and the proliferation of sexual chat rooms in the Philippines. Both have carried countless and terrible consequences, not only for the Filipino society, but for thousands of victims around the world.

Children: the greatest victims

Abuse to any human being is unfortunate, but probably the one that shocks us the most is child abuse. The cybersex industry in the Philippines identified a niche willing to pay good money: pedophiles. There have been many reports on adults from around the world who pay to watch Filipino children being sexually abused. Children are forced to perform on-demand acts guided by the pedophiles, and are often paid little money in return, while the criminals behind this crime make big bucks. Many people find in cybersex their only way to survive or to help their extremely poor families.

Investigators in Cebu estimate that tens of thousands of children are victims of the trade. Pedophiles are able to pay through methods that protect their anonymity, like Bitcoin, making it harder for authorities to keep a track on the criminals behind it.  To date, Filipino authorities like the NBI, National Bureau of Investigation, have had limited impact trying to identify and stop the criminals.

A BBC investigation exposed cybersex dens where children were abused, and how these were becoming popular in the south of Philippines. Neighbors of such places claimed at that time to be shocked about what was going on inside these dens, yet investigations throw that in one particular case at least 80 houses in the area were involved in the trade. Parents take their children to perform in front of a webcam for foreigners, and get paid “easy money”.  The criminals behind cybersex dens use internet chatrooms to find clients. Most parents engaged in the unthinkable activity justify what they do by claiming that foreign pedophiles do not actually touch the children.

Chat rooms and model sites proliferating crime

Children are not the only victims. Among the options available in the cybersex industry in the Philippines are thousands of chat rooms and model sites where adult women perform sex acts in front of a webcam. The reasons for participating are pretty much the same than in the case exposed before, the profits. However, the victims here change. It is true that many women around the world are forced to prostitution and are sexually abused. However, Filipino cybersex websites are handled by women who are there to scam foreigners. They have voluntarily accepted the task, not only to obtain easy money for showing themselves in front of a webcam, but they also serve as a main entrance to spreading malware, to cyber extortion and other crimes.

For those unaware of the risk, criminals and scammers looking to make a profit quickly take advantage of a private, sexual video chat.  Blackmail and extortion are now very common for those who decide to engage in a video chat.  Demands are then made to send payment, or suffer the embarrassment of having the video sent to friends, family and co-workers.

The users of these chatting and video camera sites are aware that the women that participate are there for money. Very few of these women are pretending to be innocent girls, but yet many foreigners still fall in their traps and promises of love.  Falling for a cam girl is a high risk venture, and in the Philippines, most of these relationships end in trouble and fraud.  The Philippines is certainly not alone, other countries with lots of cam girls are also causing a serious headache for foreigners.

It is important for adult foreigners who visit these sites in the Philippines to be cautious. If for some reason you decide that you want to pursue a real relationship with someone you’ve met online, make sure you speak to a professional private investigation company about a professional background check  in the Philippines to verify the person is who he or she claims to be.

C. Wright
© 2016 Philippine PI

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