Philippines targets cybersex trafficking but young victims are often left in limbo
- The Philippines is cracking down on an illicit industry that has been fuelled by cheap internet, the high level of English and rampant poverty
- It means more children, many very young, have to be removed from families that profit from their exploitation
Chang has no desire to go home to her parents, at least not yet. The 18-year-old Filipina has lived in a shelter since being rescued four years ago from a neighbour who forced her to perform sexual acts in front of a webcam for overseas predators.
“When I am ready to face them – to tell them that I am new and that I can handle myself – then I will go home,” said Chang, who is too ashamed to return home. Her abuser has been jailed.
“Only when I am successful,” she said, explaining how she was lured into a den of abuse with the promise of a few dollars to buy a new pair of jeans.
Chang is one of hundreds of girls and young women in the care of charities after being saved from cybersex trafficking – a form of modern-day slavery that saw 60,000 reports logged in the Philippines in 2018, a fivefold increase over four years.
Campaigners put the country at the global epicentre of the growing trade, which is creating a crisis of care for rising numbers of children, many very young, who often have to be removed from families that profit from their exploitation.
Led by police in the Philippines, a new global task force has this year been tracking down and rescuing children abused online as it works through a backlog of hundreds of cases.
