ASEAN confab in Bohol: Lack of laws, info breed cybercrimes

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines – The four-day 2nd ASEAN Conference on Working Toward a Cyber-pornography-free Southeast Asia held in this city from April 22 to 26 tackled the region-wide problem on cybercrimes, amidst today’s technological advances.

The conference—funded by the South Korean government and attended by officials of the Philippines, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand—identified factors that contributed to the proliferation of cyberpornography and cyber-prostitution, and vowed to fight these via inter-country linkages in the ASEAN region.

Reducing, if not eliminating, cybercrimes that continue to prey on innocent minors had prompted ASEAN officials to conduct the conference, which was a follow-through of the first one held in June 2012, hoping, this time, the participants would come up with regional agenda and recommendations to address the problem.

The Philippines’ DSWD Undersecretary Florita Villar said the conference tackled initially three dimensions in social welfare, enforcement and technology, and then agreed to involve a number of agencies in combating the problem.

Among the topics tackled by the panel discussion were: Overview of the global and regional initiatives in addressing cybercrimes; basic concept and models; running hotlines against cybercrimes; and presentations of regional strategies on assistance to the victims and prosecution of perpetrators.

A presentation by the group of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore stated that other challenges facing the ASEAN members on the issue were the lack of understanding about pornography and its regulations and law enforcement; lack of cyber-media literacy; and lack of centralized reporting and data banking system.

Proliferation of cybercrimes could also be the result of the lack of thorough law implementation and population migration, the conference found out, adding that the weak implementation, despite existing laws, also reflected the financial constraint to conduct inter-country ministerial meeting.

Further cited was the lack of cooperation between investigators and prosecutors, aggravated by insufficient timely information exchange and inter-agency coordination or communication.

Villar and DSWD-7 regional director Mercedita Habagat told the participants that “poverty and lack of stringent laws” have been among the root causes of cybercrimes in the country.

The DSWD said some factors that contributed to the proliferation of the cybercrimes were the people’s lack of essential information on how to address it and non-cooperation of internet cafe owners or operators that made tracking of both victims and perpetrators almost impossible.

The explosion of cybercrimes was also blamed on the technological advancement that “Southeast Asia has yet to see the regional mechanism to address” the problem, said Villar.

“Until efforts materialize, there is a need to educate the public on how computer technology and internet contribute to the worsening problem to curb its occurrence and further proliferations,” she said, adding that regional cooperation and coordination were needed by “sharing best practices, joint sourcing and technology transfer for a cybercrime-free Southeast Asia.”

During the third night of the conference, the Bohol provincial government played host to a dinner, led by Governor Edgar Chatto, for the participants which also included re-electionist Senator Koko Pimentel. (FREEMAN)