Safe Online Phillipines SUMMARY
The Philippines has been identified as a global hotspot of online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) and child pornography. This has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic due to unstructured time, isolation and heightened psychological distress. This 3 year project aims to integrate the online aspect into existing child protection mechanisms, structures and policies. The goal is to empower children and young people in Manilla, Cavite and Leyte, to protect themselves and their peers and to take collective action against OSEC and online violence. Child protection system stakeholders will be supported to assess and mitigate risks and to effectively monitor and enforce policies and programs. Relevant private sector actors will develop and implement their safeguards and CSOs will be strengthened to work with children and youth (led) groups. The aim is to increase the accountability of the government under international policy frameworks and national laws. The Philippines shows a huge prevalence of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) and online violence, particularly in Manila, Cavite and Leyte. Rapid technological advancements have changed the level and ways through which children are sexually exploited. Sexual abuse and exploitation of children increasingly take place on or through the Internet, or with some connection to the online environment, which has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic due to over-abundance of unstructured time, isolation and heightened psychological distress. Economic distress due to loss of livelihoods and employment opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic, also made parents/ caregivers decide to turn to OSEC. At the same time, the pandemic has affected the already limited platforms for children and young people to participate in public discourse. Community-based child protection systems are not functioning well, while local priorities have been shifted towards the observance of minimum health protocols and the orientation of community front-liners to respond to COVID-19 as a ‘discipline, peace and order’ problem. There is minimal investment on the part of the Local Government Units (LGUs) on child protection programs and a limited availability of OSEC data. Local Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) lack knowledge on OSEC and engage not or only limitedly with the private sector, leading to less impact and fragmented responses. At the policy level, legislations on OSEC and online violence are not harmonized and often spread out in some sections of policies against gender-based violence, violence against women and children, and child pornography. To address the identified constraints and needs, the project will empower children and young people, with the support of strengthened CSOs, to protect themselves, their peers and to take collective action against OSEC and online violence. Children and young people’s protective environment will be improved by strengthening child protection system stakeholders to assess and mitigate risks and to effectively monitor and enforce policies and programs as well as to stimulate relevant private sector actors to develop and implement their safeguards to prevent and address OSEC/ online violence. With the support of empowered CSOs, children and youth (led) groups, the project will influence the government to deliver its commitments under international policy frameworks and national laws. It is by providing avenues for genuine participation that children and young people can truly claim ownership of the decision-making processes on matters that affect them the most, supporting them to claim their rights to be heard, participate in and have access to information in the context of COVID-19. Special focus is directed to actively target marginalized groups at risk of OSEC and online violence, including the poorest of the poor, LGBTQIA+ and children with disabilities, to ensure that they are protected and that also their concerns are integrated in the advocacy- and policy recommendations to be developed under the project. The project is aligned to the government’s National Response Plan to combat OSEC and violence in general and the Philippine’s Plan of Action to End Violence against Children (2017-2022). The project builds on a number of recent programmes, such as the Cybersafe Spaces project for children and youth in the cities of Manila and Quezon, Down to Zero Building Back Better in Times of Covid-19, Voice for Change, eliminating commercial sexual exploitation of children, Girls Advocacy Alliance, She Leads, Collaborative Action against Trafficking, and more. This project applies a much needed focus on the online aspects on sexual exploitation of children and what needs to be done to ensure that all key stakeholders are aware of what’s happening and what they can do to prevent it and respond well when cases occur nonetheless. The final beneficiaries of the project will be 8,000 children and young people (17 years old and below), with special attention for the most marginalized, including the poorest of the poor, girls and young females, LGBTQIA+, and those with disabilities from Manila, Cavite and in Leyte. A Project Steering Committee, composed of representatives from Plan International and PLCPD, will be formed to serve as an advisory board to provide overall project direction and guidance. The advisory board will also include representatives from CAY-groups in each of the project areas. A coordinating group of CAYs will be organized, to collect and provide suggestions to planned activities based on the engagement with children, young people and youth.

Activities under Output 1.1. “Civil society organizations are strengthened to support children and young people in influencing and conducting joint action against OSEC and online violence” 
Activity 1.1.1. Establish linkages with 25 CSOs that provide support to children, young people and youth
Activity 1.1.2. Conduct capacity-building sessions with CSOs and children’s rights organizations on the facilitation of child- and youth engagement in combatting OSEC and online violence
Activity 1.1.3. Strengthen collaboration among 25 CSOs and 12 CAY (led) organizations, by using and enhancing existing and new online platforms as safe spaces in which to discuss and identify solutions on OSEC and online violence.

Activities under Output 1.2. Children and young people, particularly the most vulnerable, demonstrate increased capability to protect themselves, to act as active drivers of change and participate in political and public decision-making processes on OSEC and online violence. 
Activity 1.2.1. Identify 12 children and youth groups to become advocates against OSEC/ online violence
Activity 1.2.2. Develop the capacity of children and young people (particularly the poorest of the poor, girls and young women, LGBTQIA+, children/ young people with disability) on empowerment and online/ offline protection risks and mechanisms.
Activity 1.2.3. Support 12 CAY-groups/ organizations to develop their agenda, communications and advocacy plan, information and education campaign materials, and child/youth-led public awareness campaigns on eliminating OSEC and online violence.
Activity 1.2.4. Facilitate joint activities with children, young people and youth to engage with decision- and policymakers to strengthen government’s policies and programs addressing OSEC and online violence

Activities under Output 2.1. Civil society organizations and the media are respectively advocating and publicizing to promote the enactment of a new comprehensive anti-OSAEC law, and to conduct joint action against OSEC and online violence with children and young people 
Activity 2.1.1. Facilitate regular alignment meetings with 25 CSOs to link and learn from each other’s best approaches against OSEC and online violence.
Activity 2.1.2. Engage CRN, CSOs, and the media to influence policymakers and other key government officials to enact and implement the anti-OSAEC law
Activity 2.1.3. Conduct 2 annual press briefings and relevant media events and issue press statements to increase public awareness on OSEC and online violence

Activities under Output 2.2. ICT companies, including internet service providers, telecommunications, and small business operators strengthen their online safeguards to prevent OSEC and online violence 
Activity 2.2.1. Train 40 local business operators and ICT companies on child online protection, cyber-safety and relevant legislation
Activity 2.2.2. Use collaborative platforms to engage with ICT- and media companies for child-driven-, gender- and age-sensitive messages/ strategic BCC-materials to advocate against OSEC/ online violence
Activity 2.2.3. Provide training and mentoring support to 30 small business operators of local Internet cafés and Pisonet shops on the development of their respective internal code of conducts on cyber-safety
Activity 2.2.4. Organize 3 major dialogues and events with the private sector to discuss their accountability measures on OSEC and online violence

Activities under Output 2.3. Child protection system actors, including parents, communities, local government units and national government agencies, have strengthened capacity to assess and mitigate risks and to effectively monitor and enforce policies and programs that prevent and address OSEC and online violence 
Activity 2.3.1. Build the capacity of child protection system actors from the project locations of Manila, Cavite and Leyte (at 4 local/municipal/city units and 12 community-level/barangay units) in developing/ strengthening community-based age- and gender sensitive child protection reporting, monitoring and response mechanisms to OSEC and violence
Activity 2.3.2. Strengthen use of 4 existing alert platforms in collaboration with LGUs and tech- and media firms to improve reporting mechanisms for OSEC and online violence
Activity 2.3.3. Educate 13,920 child protection system actors, including parents and caregivers, in online risks and protection mechanisms, and strengthen their capacities as guardians for the safety of their children
Activity 2.3.4. Provide training and mentoring. Impact at technical level: By fully understanding the risks, children and young people are enabled to better protect themselves and to report cases within their families and communities. Their empowerment to influence duty bearers and decision makers on child protection, will contribute to more agile child- and gender responsive child protection systems. By strengthening the technical- and institutional understanding among child protection system actors in online/ offline SEC prevention, response and monitoring, the project contributes to an improved protective environment for children and young people in Cavite, Leyte and Manila, and beyond. 

Economical level: By providing poor CAYs a voice, they can make demands to the government to include their families into livelihood- and economic support services. Efforts under this project will also improve poor families’ knowledge of available government services and where to access them. 

Social level: The project will generate lasting social impact by creating an inclusive and safe protective environment for children and young people. Sharing and linking between civil society, public- and private sectors actors will become normalized. By creating new social norms around preventing and eradicating online/ offline SEC, an environment will be created in which children, their families and communities oppose and stand up against sexual exploitation. 

Policy level: The proposed national anti-OSAEC Act will strengthen law enforcers’ capacity in pursuing perpetrators and lays down additional duties to media platforms and internet service providers to block and remove child sexual abuse or exploitation material.