EDITORIAL - The hidden sex trade

Police recently arrested a woman who was found exploiting several minors for child pornography in Barangay Luz, Cebu City.

Police Major Niño Lawrence Ibo of the Women and Children Protection Desk of the Cebu City Police Office said that during the operation they rescued seven minors who were allegedly made to pose naked in front of the camera for photos and videos sold online to foreign customers.

Ibo added the suspect had been monitored for her illegal activities since 2020, but she stopped doing so at the height of the pandemic, resuming only recently.

This only goes to show that there are some adults out there who are still into this nefarious activity, unmindful of how they affect children. We should not forget that at one time it became so prevalent in a town here that lawmakers proposed tracing “suspicious” amounts of money sent through wire transfers to weed them out.

If one adult is doing it, chances are that other adults are doing it also. Unlike this one recently arrested, it may even be that at the height of the pandemic --particularly the lockdowns-- others had more reason to carry on with their illegal, immoral business as law enforcers were in no position to knock on their doors.

It becomes so easy for some adults to sell children, sometimes even their own, online. All they need is a stable internet connection, a camera, a place away from prying eyes, a bank account, and they are in business.

Many of those producing child pornography may not even consider it a direct form of exploitation. In their head they justify this with the reasoning that the foreign customers cannot directly touch or interact with their victim.

The need to find other offenders becomes more urgent because right now some people are still desperate to make ends meet --no matter what the moral cost. And also because many children are not in school because of the restrictions, making it easy for their parents to lose track of where they are, and for unscrupulous individuals to lure them into this business.