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Philippines Parents Pimp Out their Children as COVID Job Losses Mount

Ralph Jennings

   TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Child prostitution is surging this year in the
   Philippines, where parents have lost jobs during strict anti-pandemic
   shutdowns and allowed their children to work the sex trade, often
   through online connections, activists and officials say.

   Officials in the Southeast Asian country believe COVID-19 is fueling an
   increase in online sexual exploitation of children, the government's
   Commission on Human Rights said in September. UNICEF had already
   described the Philippines four years ago as "the global epicenter of
   the live-stream sexual abuse trade."

   International advocacy group End Child Prostitution and Trafficking
   estimates a 264% increase in online sexual abuse and exploitation of
   children during the pandemic, the domestic news website Manila Bulletin
   reports.

   "The increasing cases of children in prostitution is alarming," said
   Maria Teresa Dela Rosa, president of the National Association of Social
   Work Education advocacy group in the southern city Davao.

   "Parents, out of poverty, are pimping their children, even using the
   online platforms," she said.
   Stay-home orders enforced at the neighborhood level since April have
   made it tough for adults to keep or find jobs. The Philippine jobless
   rate was 10% in July, up from 5.4% a year earlier.

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