The power of the Internet for good or evil

The power of the Internet for good or evil
Fr. Shay Cullen
4 August 2023

The power of the Internet for good or evil is immense. This is an electronic communications system that carries live video images, messages, documents and phone calls to anyone and everyone who has a mobile phone or computer. It is a powerful network of computers linked to each globally by which information is transmitted between computers and people almost instantly.

This amazing technology, discovered in our lifetime, continues to change the world as people are continuously connected to each other and have a vast amount of information available quickly at the click of a button. While the system is a marvel of communication technology, what is transmitted over the network of computers to people is a very serious cause of concern. Like everything that is morally neutral in itself, it can be beautiful and is an object of wonder. It is a tool of communication and is deplorably and disgustingly abused and used for crimes of the worst kind.

All the more as computer technology has developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to be used for great good but also for great bad. There are child abusive people creating sexually explicit images of children being abused and selling them over the Internet. They claim there is no harm done as the child is not real and no abuse happens in making the image. However, it promotes horrific child abuse and is disgusting and abhorrent and must be banned everywhere. It is presently a crime in many jurisdictions.

It is widely used to sexually exploit, hurt, harm and abuse, seduce, groom and hurt children, women and men. The criminals exploit and bully the vulnerable people and post hate speech and sexually abusive material and pornography on websites and platforms like Facebook and Instagram over the Internet. Criminals use it to defraud, scam, steal, extort, shame and threaten people. Most human trafficking is done by encrypted messages and conversations by Internet connections. It continues to this day on an even greater scale. The worst form of abuse of the Internet is when corrupt people use it to transmit live images of heinous crimes committed against children. This is known as online sexual abuse and exploitation of children. It is live-streaming of sexual abuse mostly through a mobile phone connected to the Internet.

The live images of this abuse are viewed on computers or mobile phones by depraved customers in different countries, paying large sums of money to view the children being abused. Most are from rich developed nations. The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) facilitate the transmission and should be compelled to install blocking software on their server computers as they are in the Philippines under Republic Act 11930. Enforcing this is proving difficult.

Many pedophiles and child abuse traffickers save these images of child abuse and copy them. They then post them on web sites and other platforms for sale. The child is abused again and again where the terrible images of their abuse are continuously circulated and passed through the internet to other customers. The cycle of abuse is never ending.

The parents or relatives of the child victims who do it tell themselves and others that it does no harm. Customers are only looking at, not touching, the naked children. Child sex shows are much more and can be obscene acts done to the child. Children as young as three to 15 are made to do indescribable sex acts that make one shrink in total disgust.

This crime against helpless children is not to be taken lightly, must never be tolerated or ignored. Everyone is challenged to stand against it, to report abuse and demand greater law enforcement. This is a multi-billion dollar child sex business where the victims can be as young as three years of age. These immoral abusers form a great wave of demand for the live video sex shows. The customers, mostly males, search for messages and images of young women who post images of themselves in alluring poses on platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, offering themselves sexually.

The pedophiles contact them and offer them large sums of money to recruit children to be abused online. Some teenagers abused as children run to the streets and there some become human traffickers, luring other children to participate in live-sex shows on the Internet. All they need is a mobile phone and they can buy an hour of Internet time. They see no other future. The images of child sexual availability on-line desensitizes adults who can abuse children without remorse or conscience.

The payment for the child abuse shows is made also by the Internet through international money transfer services. Child abusers will get a long jail sentence to life in prison in some countries if they are caught and convicted. This is very rare as on-line sexual abuse is a secret crime with small children committed in a private room without witnesses.

Interpol and other foreign police forces have specialized police units searching for the abusive shows and are tracking them to their source. Local police are supposed to rescue the victims and arrest the suspects. This very seldom succeeds. The online child abusers frequently visit the country where the Internet live show is done. They visit the family and then physically abuse the child victim. They can quickly leave without detection and can escape if ever suspected.

When foreign law enforcement officers raid a suspected customer of child sex shows in countries of the EU, the USA or Australia, they find hundreds of other child abusers connected to each other and sharing over the Internet images of child abuse. In Germany, in one police raid, 30,000 suspected abusers were discovered on one network.

The Internet is also a power for great good. People are connected and industry thrives. The world is now dependent on having a wi-fi signal and a mobile phone. The global and Philippines telecommunications industries are connected and interdependent. They have a global responsibility to block, filter and extract child abuse images however they are made whether by Artificial Intelligence software or abused in real life. They are horrifically damaging to children and must be curbed and stopped. The sooner the better that the world wakes up to the crimes committed over the Internet and hold the internet service providers accountable for the child abuse videos and images that they pass through their computers.

That will be the day when moral values and goodness will overcome the evil of child abuse on the internet. It is the challenge for every human person to protect children from such terrible harm and abuse and give them care and protection.

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