Senator Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality. (Joseph Vidal/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday flagged another Facebook group, which has 20,000 members, supposedly being used by teenagers to trade lewd content and sexual favors to fund online education expenses.
“Hindi lahat may internet. Hindi lahat may pera para magpa-load araw araw. Hindi lahat may cellphone at laptop. Kaya ang ibang estudyante, napilitan na magbenta ng mga malalaswang larawan at videos nila para matustusan ang kanilang pag-aaral,” said Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality.
(Not everyone has access to the internet. Not everyone has the money to buy load every day. Not everyone has a cellphone or laptop. That’s why some students are forced to sell lewd photos or videos to fund their studies.)
Before this, the senator, during her panel’s hearing on Tuesday, raised concerns over a 7,000-member , which is being used for similar purposes. The social media giant already took the said page down.
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But upon further investigation, Hontiveros’ office discovered another group with similar content, called Blueroom, which has over 20,000 members.
“In the Blueroom, there are screenshots of conversations about how much load will be paid to a certain account in exchange for sexual activities via video chat,” the senator said.
