A Philippines nongovernmental organization is urging local Internet service providers (ISPs) to be more pro-active in combatting child pornography over the Internet through the use of a software developed in the U.K.

This software, developed by U.K. communications giant British Telecom as part of a project called Cleanfeed, prevents subscribers from accessing child pornography sites predetermined by the U.K.-based Internet Watch Foundation.

According to Internet reports, British Telecom test-piloted the system as early as July last year and was able to prevent some 2.7 million subscribers from accessing thousands of child porn Web sites, mostly pay-per-view sites.

Father Shay Cullen of the Olongapo-based People"s Recovery Empowerment and Development Assistance (PREDA) group said in an interview with Computerworld Philippines that the software can be had free of charge.

Fr. Cullen is lobbying before local ISPs to install the software in their servers so that local subscribers will likewise be prevented from accessing these Web sites.

"We are seeking an audience with the Philippine Internet Services Organization (PISO, the local association of ISPs) but they have yet to issue a reply to us," he said.

According to statistics presented by Fr. Cullen during a recent CIO forum conducted by Microsoft Philippines, there are more than 100,000 child pornography Web sites, which earn some US$3 billion every year from viewing fees that are paid through credit cards.

Local Cases

In a joint study by the University of the Philippines and the United Nations Children?s Fund (UNICEF) that was presented last year, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reported 13 cases of child pornography for 2003.

"But the number of unreported cases is definitely higher than that," Fr. Cullen pointed out.

During the forum, the Olongapo-based priest sought the help of the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) in enforcing anti-child pornography measures for ISPs, such as installing the necessary filtering software.

"If there is a regulation that would mandate ISPs to use this software by British Telecom, we are willing to monitor Websites that can be added to the existing database," Fr. Cullen volunteered.