Last night I watched a BBC documentary titled Stacey Dooley Investigates. The episode was series 7 episode 1 and focussed on the growing phenomenon of cybersex which is presently occurring in the Philippines. The concerning fact is that this is not between adults but involves minors and is fast becoming a billion dollar industry which relies on human trafficking along with physical and mental abuse which amount to another form of slavery. The fact I found most alarming was not the scale of the problem but that in many cases the perpetrators of the crime were parents abusing their own children in this manner. Many suspects or offenders claimed this was a means to escape poverty which is rife in this country. Sometimes they were held in cybersex dens, made to carry out all kinds of acts for webcams. In some cases the minors being held would see the police arriving as a bad thing because now they had no way of making money. What really struck me the most was when Stacey went to a refuge for some of these children. The physiological damage that had been done was very evident from seeing them going through some of their treatment therapies. I wondered especially for those abused by their own parents, how do they learn to trust again? This brought home to me how important it is to discuss such issues, raise awareness and that my project has definite relevance as this is happening right now even as I type this blog post. The sex trade has always been a major component of the slavery but the modern slave trade shows how new branches such as cybersex are now developing and preying on the poor and venerable.
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