National Study on Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children in the Philippines (For Philippine-based institutions/organisations only)

The National Study will provide systematically collected data/evidence on the nature and scope of sexual abuse and exploitation of children online in the Philippines, examining causes/drivers, that will guide policymakers and other stakeholders in preventing and responding to the problem.   
Data collected by the study will be used by government agencies such as: The Department of Justice (DOJ) and law enforcement units to develop laws and regulations, improve implementation of existing laws, improve enforcement and timely investigation and resolution of cases; The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to provide appropriate government support to develop victims’ programs adapted to the children’s needs.  
The study will be the first of its kind to explore the scope and nature of this growing trend of a new venue for abuse in the online world.  
The study will broaden the understanding of the different modalities, patterns and trends of ICT-facilitated child sexual abuse (e.g. perpetrator initiates contact through chat room and abuses the child offline) and online sexual exploitation of children in the country i.e. live streaming, production, distribution and possession of child sexual abuse materials.  
It will explore the prevalent technology in the process of abuse and exploitation, and how its access and use enables the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.  This will lead to a better understanding of the following: 1) Type of technologies being used for online sexual abuse and exploitation, 2) The role played by the private sector-ISPs, content providers, search engines that use specialized software, etc. – to detect and block child sexual abuse materials, and 3) Find possible ways to remove access to such images under the requirements of the law. As it is believed that some forms of online child sexual abuse in the Philippines are predominantly commercial, it will be important to research what financial channels are being used to facilitate exploitation and explore and look at which is their role in the perpetuation of the sexual abuse and exploitation. For the purposes of the project, cyber-bullying and Internet harassment will not be included.   
Deliverables Due Dates Refined research toolkit based on the results of the field test and composition of the Research Advisory Board Month 1, week 4 Report on the preparation stage, including ERB approval if necessary, hiring of staff, identification of subjects, coordination with different agencies, industry and training Month 4, week 1 Report on the implementation, including social preparation and data collection Month 8 Presentation/Launch and Dissemination (after validation) Month 18 *Bulk of the activity to be supported is the preparation, conduct and writing (draft) of the actual study which is from Month 1 to Month 8. The remaining months will be devoted to validation, finalization and launch of the study. Timeline provided above is still subject to the best approach to be submitted by vendor.