The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Monday, May 31, welcomed the Senate’s approval of the proposed law against Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC).
NBI Officer-in-Charge Director Eric B. Distor said the passage of the bill and its eventual enactment into law will surely boost the bureau’s investigation and prosecution of OSAEC cases.
“The NBI supports the approval of the bill as one of the Bureau’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division’s objectives is to combat online abuse and sexual exploitation of children and strengthen their protection,” Distor said.
The NBI issued its statement after the Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 2209 with 23 votes.
“Senate Bill 2209 defines and penalizes OSAEC as a specific crime,” the NBI said.
“The said bill advocates the provision of special protections to children from all forms of sexual violence, abuse and exploitation, especially those committed with the use of information and communication technology (ICT),” it added.
It said that under SB 2209, “production or creation of any form of child sexual materials, participation in the production, or facilitating in the creation of such materials is punishable by law.”
It also said that the bill states that “individuals or adults who engage in the grooming of children for the purpose of facilitating the commission of sexual exploitation activity, as well as accessing, subscribing, or streaming any form of child sexual abuse and exploitation materials will also be penalized.”
It added that the bill obliges internet service providers and social media intermediaries “to block or remove the existence of child sexual abuse or exploitation material or the streaming/live-streaming of a child sexually abused or exploited, within 24 hours from receipt of notice containing sufficient information to identify the content and its source.”
“They are also required to develop and adopt a set of systems and procedures for preventing, blocking, detecting, and reporting of OSAEC committed within their platforms, and to establish high privacy setting as default safety and privacy settings for children, and where necessary, adopt age-verification controls and protocols to restrict access to such materials,” it stressed.