Girls and women acting out the sexual fantasies of online voyeurs around the world are part of a worrying offshoot to the Philippines’ booming outsourcing industry, authorities said. Cybersex dens are a growing problem in the Southeast Asian nation that has long struggled to curb child prostitution, according to law enforcers and social workers.
They said that cyber pimps are offering cheap services via the Internet in a seedy mutation of the country’s sunshine outsource industry in which call-center work and other back-office operations are done for companies in richer countries.
In one recent police raid on a house in Olongapo City in Zambales province in northern Philippines, five girls aged 14 to 18 and three women were found performing sex acts in front of web cameras for clients sitting at computers overseas.
“It’s a lot like working for a call center. We do shifts and we chat. They can also make us do anything, as long as they pay,†said one of the girls picked up in the raid who used the working nickname of Rainbow.
The girl, 15, and her sister, 17, told Agence France-Presse that they left their rural home on a northern Philippine mango orchard to work for their aunt in Olongapo City but that their planned employment as babysitters turned into cybersex work.
“It took us about a week to adjust, but after that, we became blase about it,†said the elder sister, adding that their aunt had stayed beside them during their work to ensure the online clients’ demands were met.
The aunt was arrested in the raid in October and has been charged with trafficking in children for prostitution, which carries a maximum penalty of life in jail.
A police report of the raid shown to Agence France-Presse said of the younger girl, “One of them was naked while in the act of inserting a sex toy in her mouth in a scandalous position.â€
The girls are now undergoing counseling and rehabilitation at a local children’s center run by an Irish Catholic priest.
The center’s lawyer and counsellor, a trained psychologist, gave Agence France-Presse permission to speak with the girls.
The counsellor was present when the interview took place.
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