Following the recent directive of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for the government to intensify measures against online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC), PLDT Inc. (PLDT) and Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) affirm continuing support and strengthening of parallel efforts to protect Filipino children online. 

 “We laud the President for raising the alarm and reinforcing the urgency of solutions against OSAEC. PLDT and Smart remain committed to working with the government and supporting multi-sectoral efforts to curb this crime and making the digital environment safer for our children,” said PLDT and Smart President and CEO Manuel V Pangilinan. 

From June 2021 until end March 2024, PLDT and Smart have already blocked more than 1 million URLs and online content linked to OSAEC. Both telcos have also blocked over 5.6 million end-user attempts to access child abuse sites since November 2021. 

PLDT and Smart utilize a pioneering Child Protection Platform that enables detection and blocking of child sexual abuse and exploitation materials (CSAEM) on the domain and content level without violating data privacy laws. Both telcos work with global organizations to source dynamic intelligence on CSAEM, including UK-based charity Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and the Canadian Centre for Children Protection for its Project Arachnid. They are engaging further with the IWF to explore new strategies and keep abreast of emerging trends surrounding OSAEC, including the rise of self-generated CSAEM and the growing use of Artificial Intelligence to exploit children online.