Nearly 17K cases of violence against children in 2023

A TOTAL of 17,681 cases of violence against children were reported in 2023, the Council for Welfare of Children (CWC) said yesterday.

This is slightly lower than more than 19,000 cases of violence against children (VAC) reported to the Philippine National Police-Women and Children Protection Center in 2022, CWC executive director Angelo Tapales said at the Bagong Pilipinas program over state television PTV 4.

Tapales said the top three VAC cases, both in 2023 and 2022, are violation of Republic Act No. 7610 or the Child Abuse Law, rape, and acts of lasciviousness.

He said around 1,000 of the 2023 cases involved online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) and over 300 OSAEC cases have been filed last year.

Tapales said they are closely monitoring the cases of involving children, especially the OSAEC as some of those who commit the crime are parents or guardians of the children.

“There is the wrong mentality that children should contribute to the income of the family, that’s why they think it’s ok to take photos or videos of the children, and sell them. There is also the wrong mentality that their children are not being physically touched,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.

But children are traumatized by these experiences, he said.

“We object to that. That is wrong. It can damage the child, so that should not be done,” he said.

Tapales also expressed concern over reports that millions of artificial intelligence-generated child sexual abuse materials are now rampant abroad.

He said there are no such case has yet been reported in the Philippines but they are closely monitoring the situation in a bid to prevent its entry in the country.

Tapales said perpetrators are able to create “photorealistic images” of children in the sexual abuse and exploitation materials they produce and sold in the dark web.

“So, it’s really alarming,” he said adding that the CWC has been coordinating with local government units and other agencies to educate the public on AI-generated materials and what they could do to prevent these from spreading.

He said the parents themselves can also help by informing their children about the harmful contents and materials, spending