DOJ sets up hotline for victims of child abuse, online exploitation

DOJ sets up hotline for victims of child abuse, online exploitation

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday said the National Coordinating Council on Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (NCC-OSAEC) will be setting up a hotline for victims and members of their families to voice their complaints.

DOJ Assistant Secretary Jose Dominic Clavano stressed that the plan was discussed by the NCC-OSAEC during its first regular meeting held last December.

“They talked about in their first regular meeting the milestones they want to achieve,” Clavano said.

“Foremost among these is the setting up of a hotline where complaints can be made by the relatives or friends of the victims of online sexual abuse or exploitation of children,” he added.

The DOJ official said through the hotline, “We can get the pulse of the people.”

“We will see the status of OSAEC in the country and do something about it because the coordinating council is receiving the complaints directly,” he said.

Clavano pointed out that the NCC-OSAEC is a new body as he recounted that OSAEC cases were previously handled by the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT).

“We will see the light at the end of the tunnel concerning the problem which spiked during the pandemic),” he said.

“We already saw a lot of cases when the IACAT was still handling OSAEC. All the cases have been endorsed. Hundreds of cases have been endorsed from IACAT Secretariat to the NCC-OSAEC which now has its own executive director,” he added.