Cyber cops to stamp out human trafficking, child porn online

By Alcuin Papa - Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines -- Human traffickers, online child molesters and perpetrators of child pornography, beware!

The Philippine National Police (PNP) now has cyber cops surfing the Internet for websites that traffic Filipino women and children and abuse children online.

According to Director Geary Barias, chief of the PNP’s Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management, a proposal to set up a Women and Children’s Crimes Division (WCCD) in Camp Crame has been approved by the National Police Commission.

The new unit, which will be operational by end of August, will focus on child pornography and the trafficking of females, on and off the web.

On Thursday, around 100 police officers and government prosecutors finished a four-day course for law enforcers on how to address the trafficking of children and women on the Internet.

The seminar, held at the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP), featured speakers from international groups like the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), the Interpol, the United States Embassy and Microsoft Phil.

“The seminar is an eye-opener for law enforcers on the existence of child pornography and human trafficking. We are committed to control all crimes, in the virtual world or otherwise,” Barias said.

He said it gave the PNP the opportunity to network with foreign counterparts and to strengthen relationships with international law enforcement agencies in the fight against transnational crimes.

Chief Superintendent Yolanda Tanigue, chief of the DIDM’s women and children’s crimes division, said the new cyber cops would be using “sting” and surveillance operations against child molesters.

“We will have agents posing as children online to chat with molesters. We can set up a meeting and nab them,” she said.

She said the law enforcers learned during the course that certain online communications could be used as evidence in cases against perpetrators.

In the case of websites featuring child pornography, Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza said the DIDM would use “computer forensics” to track down the operators of the website.

Incidents of online pornography involving women and children have been on the rise, Mendoza said.

Websites are proliferating in middle-class and slum areas because computers are now affordable and easy to set up to go online, according to him.

Ruben Rodriguez of the ICMEC described the campaign to stamp out child pornography as a global concern.

“There are officers around the world pursuing these offenders. They are conducting sting operations all over,” he said.

Rodriguez said local law enforcement needed to set its priorities right.

“It’s not that you don’t have the commitment. It’s more of what direction you want to take. What are the priorities and how much resources are you willing to put in? Fighting cybercrime is very resource-intensive,” Rodriguez said.

Philippine law enforcement also needed to keep abreast with new technology, he said.

“The Internet is evolving. What you learn today is passé in six months. To fight cyber crimes, you need a team of dedicated people who specialize in investigating these kinds of crimes,” Rodriguez said.