4 August 2022
Child Rights Coalition Asia (CRC Asia) celebrates the enactment of the Philippine Republic Act No. 11930 or the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials (CSAEM) Act. This new law contributes to ushering a move towards making the digital environment a safer space for children.
We commend not only the law’s provisions that address the weaknesses of existing legislations, but also the process in which it was developed: Children and young people were consulted, along with victim-survivors, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders, such as internet service providers and social media companies.
We hope that this process of hearing the voices of children—of ensuring their meaningful participation in the development of policies that affect them—becomes more widely practiced.
We also welcome the new law’s provision to create an offenders registry, which is one recommendation that CRC Asia pushed for as a measure to limit offenders’ contact with children. The registry shall include nationals and foreigners convicted of OSAEC, CSAEM, and other sexual offenses against children. It will be shared with relevant government authorities in the country and linked to international law enforcement agencies. With this provision, the Philippines becomes one of the first ASEAN Member States to implement the plan to have “an integrated national child sex offenders’ registry” that will strengthen the region’s offender management systems.1
Building on this legislative win for child rights, we hope that stakeholders continue to collaborate to ensure the successful implementation of Republic Act No. 11930 and make its envisioned effect felt by children.
As a coalition working for and with children, CRC Asia further hopes that there will be continuous measures to guarantee not only the protection of children against online violence but also the empowerment of children, through digital literacy and development of critical thinking, so that children can take full advantage of the opportunities that the digital environment can offer for the realization of their rights.
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1 Regional Plan of Action for the Protection of Children from All Forms of Online Exploitation and Abuse in ASEAN (2021). Accessible at https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/4.-ASEAN-RPA-on-COEA_Final.pdf
Download the Statement in pdf here.
About CRC Asia
Child Rights Coalition Asia (CRC Asia) is a network of child rights organizations working together for the fulfillment of child rights.
