Poverty pushing some parents to traffic own children online, DSWD says
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/4 November) – Poverty is forcing some parents of minors to exploit their children through online sexual trafficking, an official of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-Davao said.
In an interview at the sidelines of the Kapehan sa Dabaw on Monday, November 3, Fretzie Ann Ellyn Pallado, focal person for the Recovery and Reintegration Program of Trafficked Persons (RRPTP) of DSWD-Davao, expressed alarm that perpetrators of online sexual trafficking are no longer just distant relatives but now include parents of the survivor victims.
“In OSAEC cases, the primary reason family members become involved is poverty—the lack of livelihood pushes them to engage in such acts.It’s really alarming because, in previous years, the usual perpetrators were often relatives. But now, even immediate family members themselves, such as the mother and father, are involved. They facilitate the production of CSAE materials – pornographic materials or videos,” she said in Cebuano.
She said parents exploit their children by producing child sexual abuse or exploitation materials (CSAEM/CSAM), in the process exposing them on camera in exchange for money from foreign clients, many of them Australians.
Based on data released by DSWD-Davao, the agency rescued 77 minors in 2023, 75 in 2024, and 43 as of October 2025.
The youngest victim was just 4 years old.
Pallado said the DSWD-Davao has provided them support through RRPTP, which is a comprehensive program that ensures adequate recovery and reintegration services, including psychosocial, social, and economic, for trafficked victims.
She said the government also provides educational assistance for victims.
Republic Act 11930, also known as the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials (CSAEM) Act, criminalizes, among others, the hiring of a child to perform in whatever way in the production and creation of OSAEC and CSAEM. The law also prohibits the offering, selling, or distributing of these materials.
The law defines CSAEM/CSAM as materials, like visual, video, audio, written, or any combination of these, of “a child engaged or involved in real or simulated sexual activities, or depicting acts of sexual abuse or exploitation of a child as a sexual object.”
Materials that focus on the genitalia or other private body parts of a child are also considered CSAEM/CSAM.
Pallado emphasized the need to strengthen awareness among minors in communities on OSAEC, noting that some children are unaware that they are already being abused.
“We continue to strengthen our efforts, especially in schools and among students, since most of the victim-survivors are students. That’s why we focus on educating them about what constitutes prostitution, what OSAEC is, and the risks they face if they engage in such activities,” she said.
She added that family members need to be educated about the various forms of abuse, emphasizing that many are not fully aware that abuses prohibited under the law may come in other forms, not only sexual contact with victims.
“They’re not very aware that what happened already constitutes an abuse. That’s usually what they claim—that there’s no physical contact with the child, or it’s more of showing the naked body, without knowing that it’s already considered CSAEM,” she said.
She said these are then sold to pornographic websites.
She said social workers conduct psychosocial sessions for rescued victims and continue to monitor those reintegrated into communities to ensure that they are not victimized again. (Antonino L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
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