PLDT, Smart tout win over child sites with Canada’s C3P; block record 127K URLS

FILE PHOTO: A hooded man holds a laptop computer as a blue screen with an exclamation mark is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration

MANILA, Philippines — PLDT Inc. and Smart Communications said it blocked a record number of online addresses showing child sexual abuse and pornography, thanks to its partnership with Canadian Center for Child Protection (C3P).

PLDT said in a statement that a total of 127,000 uniform resource locators (URL) were blocked as it ramps up its fight against sites showing illicit content featuring minors.

“We are keen to optimize this alliance with the C3P to further boost our child protection platform and augment our capability to continuously weed out and prevent access to CSAM within our network,” said PLDT first vice president and chief information security officer Angel Redoble.

Based in Winnipeg, Canada, C3P is a national charity unit that advocates for children’s safety and works to prevent the proliferation of online child sexual abuse materials (CSAM).

C3P’s Project Arachnid detects and processes tip line reports on CSAM and serves as an intelligence resource for electronic service providers to remove harmful and abusive sites from the web.

“Child sexual abuse material is a borderless epidemic that demands a collaborative, global response. By helping reduce access in their country to images and videos of children being sexually assaulted, PLDT and Smart are strengthening online efforts to reduce child victimization and safeguard children,” C3P director of IT Lloyd Richardson said in the same statement.

With this C3P partnership, PLDT and Smart gain access to a customized blocking list of URLs to intensify their domain and content-level blocking of CSAM.

“When customers try to access any of these URLs that are in the list, they will be directed to a page telling them that the content violates Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Law,” Redoble said.

PLDT and Smart are also working with UNICEF, the International Justice Mission, and the Internet Watch Foundation on various initiatives and industry solutions that enable children’s rights and combat online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

These align with PLDT and Smart’s pioneering Child Safeguarding Policy that institutionalizes the implementation of child safety practices and solutions in their offline and online business operations.

JPV

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