A three-month-old baby has fallen victim to online sexual exploitation, Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant Secretary Jose Dominic Clavano IV divulged on Thursday, April 25, as the agency took note of the rampant online sexual abuse of minors in the Philippines.

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Citing reports and research by the National Coordinating Council, the official said during a Palace press briefing on child sexual abuse and exploitation materials (CSAEM) and online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) that parents and relatives of children are usually behind their exploitation on the internet.

The average age of OSAEC victims at the time of referral or rescue is 11 years old, with less than one year old being the youngest, Clavano said.

But he also lamented that an earlier case showed the victim to be only three months old, “which is very alarming.”

“It’s something unthinkable for us. But apparently, it happens,” Clavano stressed.

The official also sounded the alarm because the Philippines seems to be “a favorite spot or a source for these western countries to abuse” after sharing that “older men from English-speaking and more developed and Western countries” are usually the customers of such materials.

Victims of OSAEC are predominantly female at 86 percent, while 14 percent are male.

According to Clavano, “OSAEC is usually a family-based crime with biological parents facilitating the abuse of 41 percent of the victims and other relatives facilitating the abuse for another 42 percent of the victims.”

The research also found that if the facilitator is a parent or a family member, the victim’s age is usually in the pre-adolescent range, while if the facilitator is not a family member, the age profile of the victim is in the adolescent range.

The official lamented that without intervention, the abuse can last for two years.

“All we have to do really is spread the awareness, spread the information that these things are not really normal,” he said.

Lawyer Margarita Magsaysay, executive director of the DOJ Center for Anti-Online Child Sexual Abuse, shared that the targets are poorer children from vulnerable areas because “OSAEC is a financially- lucrative activity.”

Facilitators of the crime would usually receive from P200 to P300 for showing nude photos of the children on the internet.

The amount paid for the photos has become cheaper, Magsaysay noted, because of the proliferation of CSAEM. This has also made these materials more accessible, she added.