PLDT Inc. and Smart Communications Inc. have blocked over a billion user attempts to access online child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) in the past six months.
Both telcos also blocked more than 224,000 CSAM URLs or web addresses, as of end March 2022 via their cybersecurity solutions and Child Protection Platform.
Amid the global rise in cybercrimes and cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC), PLDT and Smart earlier invested P2 billion to beef up their cybersecurity operations center and Child Protection Platform to detect, predict, respond, and prevent access to CSAM.
"Our milestone figures manifest our expanded capacity to both block illicit URLs and prevent end-user attempts to access CSAM," reiterated PLDT Chief Information Security Advisor Angel T. Redoble.
Their in-house solutions optimize top-notch cybersecurity technologies and use dynamic intelligence data gathered from alliances with entities like the Internet Watch Foundation and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
“Seeing such significant results, we are all the more encouraged to constantly keep abreast with global best practices and forge more alliances to enhance child protection,” he noted.
As part of the group's environmental, social, and governance commitments, PLDT and Smart implement a pioneering Child Safeguarding Policy that embeds child rights and safety considerations into group-wide programs, practices, and technology solutions.
These initiatives concretize the group's active pledge to help the Philippines attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG), particularly UNSDG #16 which stands against abuses, exploitation, trafficking, and violence against children.