Prostitution in RP the 4th largest source of GNP: UN
Prostitution in RP the 4th largest source of GNP: UN
Agence France-Presse, Manila
Prostitution in the Philippines has become a multi-million dollar
industry and is now the fourth largest source of gross national
product, a report on child pornography said on Tuesday.
Commissioned by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF),
the report, Child Pornography in the Philippines, said new
technology such as the Internet has taken pornography to a new
level that is much harder to detect.
It said poor, developing countries like the Philippines have
now become major centers for the global sex tourism industry
where women and children are exploited.
The report said the growth of prostitution in developing
countries is "inextricably intertwined with sex tourism".
And it added that a study by the Psychological Trauma Program
of the University of the Philippines found that prostitution has
now become the fourth largest source of GNP in the Philippines.
The report's coordinator Elizabeth Protacio de Castro of the
Center for Integrative and Development Studies at the University
of the Philippines said: "We have only started to scratch the
surface of child pornography in this country."
At a press conference to launch the report she said the
Philippines had now become a major attraction for "pedophiles and
perverts" who prey on children and are involved in the production
of child pornography.
"We know child prostitution exists in the Philippines but what
we don't know is the extent of child pornography," she said.
"While some data is available it may not reflect the real
number of children being victimized by the child pornographer."
Data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development
shows only nine children were victims of child pornography in
2000 compared with 13 in 2003, while the number of children who
were victims of child prostitution numbered 186 and 247 for the
same years.
De Castro said the aim of the report "is to address the lack
of information" available on child pornography in the Philippines
and to "address issues about such things as the laws protecting
children".
The study which was carried out last year said the advent of
the Internet, mobile phones and digital camera had made the work
of the pornographer easier while making it more difficult for the
authorities to detect.
De Castro said the attitude of local Internet Service
Providers will have to change if child pornography is to be
tackled in the Philippines. She said every single ISP approached
for the report refused to be interviewed.
"Digital technology, with its obvious attractions for
children, often facilitates recruitment of kids into these
practices. It can also be seen as a safer form of prostitution,"
said UNICEF's country representative in the Philippines, Nicholas
Alipui