The children for sale – and the Australians who exploit them

Olongapo: Anna* dreams of becoming an astronaut when she grows up. “I want to go to the moon,” the 12-year-old murmured as she stared down at her interlaced hands inside a children’s rescue shelter three hours north-west of the Philippines’ capital, Manila.

The moon is worlds away from the province of Bulacan, where Anna and her two younger cousins – aged 11 and 8 – were sexually abused by their parents and two uncles. Their offenders arranged for Western foreigners to purchase live-stream viewings of the crimes and watch from thousands of kilometres away for their sick sexual gratification.

Shamefully, Australian predators are major contributors to the dark and disturbing trade.

The children were told the acts were needed to pay for food, clothes and school.

International law enforcement alerted local authorities to the abuse and the three cousins were sent to the People’s Recovery, Empowerment and Development Assistance Foundation (Preda), where they have spent more than two years trying to heal from a type of pain no child should ever understand, let alone feel.

The phones used to record the abuse were traced to their parents, who are detained awaiting trial and their uncles, who fled and are at large.

The Philippines is the global epicentre of the live-stream child sexual abuse trade, according to the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund.

According to the 2022 Disrupting Harm Study conducted by UNICEF, ECPAT International and Interpol, 20 per cent of internet-using Filipino children aged 12 to 17 were subjected to online abuse and exploitation, representing an estimated 2 million children.

Statistics show Australia is among the leading countries feeding the demand. Rescue organisations say the issue has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic began, when high internet usage combined with lockdowns created a thriving environment for online exploitation.

Behind each statistic is an innocent child who, in the majority of cases, has been abused by those they trusted the most, selling their bodies to Australians and other foreigners for as little as $20 per act of abuse.

How parents sell their kids to Australian paedophiles

Through a Filipino interpreter, Anna’s 11-year-old cousin Nicholas* told this masthead why he and his cousins were at Preda, which was established by Irish priest and four-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Father Shay Cullen in 1974.

“Because our parents abused us,” Nicholas said. “I wish they would change”.

Despite having endured unimaginable suffering, the three cousins found many moments in their jungle-fringed sanctuary to smile, giggle and play.

Their favourite subjects ranged from science to English and they had earned several academic awards between them. They loved to swim, sing and play basketball. They each agreed, albeit shyly, that they were glad to have each other at their new home.

Amid a backdrop of mountains, the children filled the many rows of chairs for their Sunday gathering. Fittingly, Anna’s shirt read “wear whatever you want”.

Cullen introduced Preda’s three new children, who stood up, smiled and waved to the crowd.

“Our family is growing bigger and bigger every week,” he said.

There was a round of applause for a birthday boy. Then, Cullen began his homily in their native language. He spoke of every child’s right to dignity and safety.

“Who is the greatest?” Cullen asked.

“Children,” they chanted.

One teenager clutched her 12-month-old baby in her arms, cooling her face with a handheld fan. Another young girl played with her friend’s hair. Echoes of national Filipino melodies bounced off the walls before the service ended with a dance.

Cullen founded Preda near the Philippines port city of Olongapo, once home to a major American navy base.

Raised in Dublin, Cullen had been assigned to a parish in the city and soon discovered it was an illegal prostitution hub between foreigners and Filipino women and girls. “I knew I had to do something to help,” he said.

Today, 58 child abuse victims live at the high-ceiling home, complete with colourful dorms, a playground and a library.

It is funded by Cullen’s mango pulp business and private donors. The children go to school, enjoy activities such as dancing and karate and undergo “emotional release therapy” where they let out their negative emotions in a room with padded walls and floors.

Cullen said victims scream about those who were meant to protect them so they can prepare to give evidence in court if required.

“All their lives, they were told, ‘silence is golden’, you know, don’t tell anyone, keep it to yourself, suffer in silence,” Cullen said. “And now they’re in a position where they can express it, let out all their pain and challenge their abuser.”

Over decades, many of the victims at Preda previously suffered abuse at the hands of locals and foreigners, including many Australians. Other perpetrators, as in the case of Anna and her cousins, watched the acts over the internet.

“Paedophiles have been coming to this country from Australia for many years,” Cullen said.

“Now, they usually work online; they prepare relationships with a parent or a pimp over the internet, send money in advance, and then many actually come here on a so-called holiday and meet up with the children and abuse them”.

One child, who had been at Preda for two years, was rescued from her home and sent to the shelter after authorities uncovered a sex den in which a dozen children – the youngest aged one – were sexually abused on camera in front of Australian men.

A Sydney-based airline ground crew worker in his 60s was among those arrested over the syndicate. His phone was searched by Border Force officials upon arriving back to Australia and found to contain child sex abuse material, which was traced back to the Philippines. Hundreds of transactions exceeding $100,000 were made to ­the country in exchange for the horrific content.

The child spent a year at the centre before being moved into the care of another relative by authorities.

‘Appalling and very disturbing’

Statistics reinforce what rescue shelters are seeing in the Philippines.

An International Justice Mission study, in partnership with the US Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and the Philippine InterAgency Council Against Trafficking, found Australia is the third most commonly reported nationality of ‘customers’ of online sexual exploitation of young adults and children in the Philippines.

Marie Michelle Quezon, child protection officer with UNICEF Philippines, pointed to a national Anti-Money Laundering Council report that found Australia has consistently ranked as the third-highest source of transactions, by both volume and value, related to online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, following the United States and the United Kingdom.

A study by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that 256 Australians spent $1.3 million to view live-streamed child sexual abuse of Filipino children over 13 years.

Quezon said many Filipino children have grown up in an environment where selling their bodies to foreigners online is “normalised”.

“It happens in a place where they should be safe in the comfort of their home,” she said. “It’s normalised for them to remove their clothes in front of the camera. It puts food on the table, and there is also the grooming aspect.”

One foreigner paid private school fees for a child in return for live-streamed abuse. Due to continuous grooming, another child wanted to write their offender a letter apologising for them being caught.

Poverty, poor education and “social norms” in their communities created challenges in breaking the cycle of abuse in the Philippines, Quezon said. She stressed concern over Australians exploiting this cycle for their own sexual desires.

“It’s actually appalling and very disturbing,” she said. “They’re not just perpetrators who are uneducated or have just this (small) amount of money.”

Quezon said reports of foreigners – including Australian men – grooming Filipino children since the pandemic had increased significantly, due to children and their families spending long periods online.

While the child protection system was overstretched, Quezon said UNICEF was working with Save the Children Philippines and The Asia Foundation to implement a six-year, $8 million Australian-government-funded program called SaferKidsPH.

Last year, the Philippine government also agreed to strengthen law enforcement tools and promote the use of videotaped evidence to prevent re-traumatising victims. Enforcing aspects of the law, however, had proved challenging.

Of the 20 convictions linked to Preda children each year on average, Cullen said many were due to his social workers helping children prepare statements to authorities and give evidence in court. “Every case we’ve won, we’ve done it ourselves,” he said.

While working in the background to bring more perpetrators to justice, Preda staff say most of their time is spent helping the children live normal lives.

On the ceiling of the shelter hall, Cullen hung pictures of the Milky Way because “children are the centre of the universe”.

They reminded Anna of her wish to make it to the moon.

Until then, she can focus on enjoying a childhood free from exploitation by those who brought her into this world and the men who demanded the abuse at the click of a button.

She does not need to worry about being a grown-up.

With Aram Lascano

* Anna and Nicholas are not their real names

If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732. Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.