7 children rescued, cybersex trafficker arrested in lockdown operation

LUZON, THE PHILIPPINES – Police locked up a 25-year-old female sex trafficker and brought seven minors to safety on Wednesday 22 April. 

Carrying a search warrant, members of the PNP Women and Children Protection Center (WCPC) and Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) conducted the operation in an undisclosed location in Luzon.

The officers arrested the suspect after finding child sexual exploitation materials in her home.

Supported by the US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and International Justice Mission (IJM), this is the second police operation against cybersex trafficking of children carried out amid the COVID-19 lockdowns.

“We continue to be on the lookout for traffickers and abusers who are exploiting children in exchange for money from online child sex offenders,” said WCPC Chief, Police Brigadier General Alessandro Abella. “We assure the public – and warn criminals – that our mandate to safeguard Filipino children from online sexual exploitation remains despite the community quarantines in effect around the country.”

The seven minors – six males and one female, ages 3 to 14 – were rescued from the scene and are now undergoing proper trauma counselling. Four of them are the suspect’s own children.

On 6 April, in a different case, WCPC-Visayas Field Unit members also arrested an online sex trafficker in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu. She was issued an arrest warrant for producing and distributing child sexual exploitation materials and livestreaming the sexual abuse of her underage cousin for a paying foreign online sex offender.

The victim, who was abused from the age 11 to 13, was rescued last year.

“We recognise lockdowns as an important step to contain the coronavirus, but we also acknowledge that one unintended consequence of this is that vulnerable children are being trapped with abusers and traffickers in their homes,” said IJM Philippines Director Samson Inocencio Jr. “IJM continues to work closely with our law enforcement partners to bring cybersex trafficking perpetrators to prisons.”

Note:

The Terminology Guidelines for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, also known as the Luxembourg Guidelines, prescribes the use of the term “child sexual abuse material” or “child sexual exploitation material” instead of “child pornography”, except when referencing the name of statute. Sexualised material that depicts or otherwise represents children is a representation, and a form, of child sexual abuse and should not be described as “pornography.”

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