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Cybersex: Philippine outsourcing boom's dark underside
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 say.
Cybersex dens are a growing problem in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation that has long struggled to curb child prostitution, according to law enforcers and social workers.
They say cyber pimps are offering cheap services via the Internet in a seedy mutation of the country's sunshine outsource industry in which call centre work and other back-office operations are done for companies in richer countries.
In one recent police raid on a house in Olangapo city in the northern Philippines, five girls aged 14-18 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 centre. 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 AFP they left their rural home on a northern Philippine mango orchard to work for their aunt in Olongapo, 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 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 AFP 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."
The girls are now undergoing counselling and rehabilitation at a local children's centre run by an Irish Catholic priest.
The centre's lawyer and counsellor, a trained psychologist, gave AFP permission to speak with the girls. The counsellor was present when the interview took place.
Although police raids on cyber sex dens across the country are turning up women and children almost every week, they could be the tip of the iceberg, said law enforcer Migdonio Congzon of the National Bureau of Investigation.
"It's an economic issue. People are poor and they need the money," Congzon, the bureau's computer crimes chief, told AFP.
"There is no definite set up. It could be a house, it could be a condo unit, it could be anything else as long as you have computers with cameras and an Internet connection."
Authorities appear ill-prepared to deal with the mushrooming industry.
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 say.
Cybersex dens are a growing problem in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation that has long struggled to curb child prostitution, according to law enforcers and social workers.
They say cyber pimps are offering cheap services via the Internet in a seedy mutation of the country's sunshine outsource industry in which call centre work and other back-office operations are done for companies in richer countries.
In one recent police raid on a house in Olangapo city in the northern Philippines, five girls aged 14-18 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 centre. 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 AFP they left their rural home on a northern Philippine mango orchard to work for their aunt in Olongapo, 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 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 AFP 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."
The girls are now undergoing counselling and rehabilitation at a local children's centre run by an Irish Catholic priest.
The centre's lawyer and counsellor, a trained psychologist, gave AFP permission to speak with the girls. The counsellor was present when the interview took place.
Although police raids on cyber sex dens across the country are turning up women and children almost every week, they could be the tip of the iceberg, said law enforcer Migdonio Congzon of the National Bureau of Investigation.
"It's an economic issue. People are poor and they need the money," Congzon, the bureau's computer crimes chief, told AFP.
"There is no definite set up. It could be a house, it could be a condo unit, it could be anything else as long as you have computers with cameras and an Internet connection."
Authorities appear ill-prepared to deal with the mushrooming industry.
