PLDT welcomes stronger online child protection law

PLDT Inc. welcomed moves to strengthen legislation aimed at protecting minors on the internet as cases of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) continue to rise in the country.

Recently, Congress approved in a joint session the amendment to the antihuman trafficking legislation that harmonized Senate Bill No. 2499 and House Bill No. 10658.

“This version now includes strengthened provisions against OSAEC, which will effectively address earlier limitations on the implementation of Republic Act No. 9775, otherwise known as, the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009,” PLDT said in a statement.

PLDT first vice president and head for regulatory and strategic affairs Aileen Regio said the revisions “make the law more adaptive and responsive to the ever-changing technology landscape.”

“This amendment legislation has a clear understanding of the entire digital ecosystem that enables human trafficking and OSAEC and makes a precise distinction on the roles of the different entities, especially recognizing intermediaries that are in a better position to manage content that are housed through their platforms,” Regio said.

Working with the existing law, PLDT said it invested in a so-called child protection platform that allows them to detect, respond and prevent domain and content-level access to OSAEC within their network.

The group had blocked over 179,000 internet addresses as of Jan. 31 this year with the help of partners such as the Internet Watch Foundation and the Canadian Centre for Children Protection.

PLDT and Smart earlier joined fellow internet providers via the Philippine Chamber of Telecommunication Operators seeking clarity on amendments to Section 9 of RA 9775. It argued that this would impose conflicting provisions on internet provider measures for content filtering and data privacy protection.