The PLDT Group on Friday called on internet service providers (ISPs) and other stakeholders to help create a clean cyberspace for all users and stop the proliferation of child sexual abuse and exploitation materials (CSAEM) online by organizing a global chain of trust.
“It’s a cat-and-mouse game. We do our best to block URLs containing these illicit materials. But the perpetrators move from one domain or service provider to another. If we isolate a digital environment that prevents this kind of content from being accessed, then we’ll make it harder for criminals to share child abuse files online,” PLDT and Smart chief information security officer Angel T. Redoble said.
The GCT aims to create a cleaner, safer, and more resilient digital ecosystem that allows members to share and enroll locally verified and trusted domains among each other.
At present, internet service providers blindly ingest domain registries including those with malicious files. With the GCT, a whitelisting of domain registries ensures that customers only access websites that are free of illicit content.
Redoble also pushed for close collaboration with law enforcement agencies local and domestic to identify perpetrators and prosecute them.
A study by UNICEF Philippines bared that production of CSAEM proliferate in poverty-ridden communities where the victim’s relatives are often the facilitators and foreigners as consumers or patrons of these illicit materials.
The call for a deeper global cooperation among stakeholders comes at a time when telcos and governments are battling hacking incidents, scams, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, as well as the spread of online child abuse materials.
PLDT and Smart’s collaborative approach against cyberattacks and online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) has enabled the Group to prevent more than 1.5 billion attempts to open malicious domains, including CSAEM in January.
