Child pornography is real. It is not only a worse form of child exploitation and human rights abuse but it also undermines all the efforts of both the government and non-government sectors in creating a better and humane society for them.
However, not all child-focused organizations are knowledgeable about the extent and seriousness of the problem thus the Mindanao Regional Conference on Child Pornography was held in Davao City on June 22-23, 2006 under the auspices of the UNICEF.
The said conference highlighted the results of the appraisal commissioned by UNICEF in the situation of child pornography in the country. On the one hand, it revealed that Filipino children are increasingly being victimized in pornography and on the other hand, people in general, including duty-bearers, are unaware of its existence. The Center for Integrative and Development Studies of the University of the Philippines cited three main reasons why child pornography is seldom recognized in the Philippine setting. One is that it is not as visible as other child protection issues; the second is that victimization of children will not be known unless it is reported by the child or by his or her kin; and, people do not know or do not recognize child pornography.
In Davao City, two cases of child pornography have been recorded. One was that of a foreigner-photographer and his Filipino wife in Sulop, Davao del Sur and the one involving a foreigner with Filipino cohorts inside a popular hotel in downtown area. A few cases involving paedophilia were also recorded in the Davao City Police Office in the past years. Hundreds of objectionable pictures of girls were taken from the culprits.
As a result, the participants that came from various provinces and cities included in the CPC-6 Focus Areas validated the results of the study. They likewise conceded that proliferation of pornographic materials in print and digital form and involving children in these activities indeed require a more collective effort and head-on approach to address the worsening problem.
Local action plans were then crafted particularly on the area of raising-people’s awareness on child pornography and monitoring of cases in the community level in various focus areas, being the major gap, as a first step in addressing child pornography. The local Children Welfare Council (CWC) of Davao City through the recently-concluded 2007 Annual Work Planning workshop of UNICEF-CPC 6 has taken pornography as a pressing issue on children and is encouraging members of the CWC-Sub-committee on CNSP to take this among their child protection advocacy agenda.
Challenged by the outcome of the June 2006 conference, four (4) local organizations, which are members of the CNSP sub-committee of the CWC, namely: Talikala, Tambayan Center for Street Girls, Foundation Balay Pasilungan and Kabataan Consortium, came together to discuss the possibility of crafting a comprehensive anti-pornography campaign leading to a passage of local legislation and/or a program that directly addresses the issue. This campaign shall therefore be a collective effort of the above implementing organizations with the cooperation of other networks, groups and sectors working on children’s rights that may be involved in the process of implementation.
General Objective:
The campaign aims to generate wider public awareness towards organized and systematic collective response to combat any form of abuse and exploitation among children, particularly on child pornography as a pressing child protection issue in Davao City.
