Over 3,000 sites blocked in campaign vs child exploitation
MANILA – PLDT and its subsidiary SMART blocked a total of 3,011 websites that host illicit content involving children.
In its statement released today, PLDT-Smart reported blocking the websites based on the mandate of the government’s National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to protect people from online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSEAC).
“THE PLDT Group is also building up further the capacity of its network-based child protection platform and is currently testing additional technologies that would allow automatic blocking of end-used access to OSAEC or child pornographic content,” the statement read.
Angel Redoble, ePLDT Group’s chief information security officer said users who will attempt to open these blacklisted websites will be automatically redirected to a landing page informing them of the site’s violation of the country’s Anti-Child Pornography Law.
He added they are expanding their intelligence sources on domains with identified OSEAC content through seeking membership with the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) which will provide the company access to a “rich database” of web pages linked to child sexual abuse.
He said they are completing their membership with the IWF during the first quarter of the year as they hope to contributing more to multisectoral efforts to end the crime against minors.
PLDT has rolled out its own Child Safeguarding Policy in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
With the longer exposure to the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic due to blended learning, SMART has begun working with UNICEF, the Department of Education and the National Privacy Commission (NPC) with CyberSmart: Cybersecurity Beyond Digital learning series in 2020.
The program provides students with information how to safeguard their digital presence. (Melo M. Acuña)