The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has called on social networking giant Facebook to remove pages involved in the online selling of children disguised as adoption. According to Secretary Rex Gatchalian, there should be regulations in place for such activities on the platform.
The National Authority for Child Care (NACC) has been closely monitoring social media platforms since 2023 and has identified around 20 to 30 Facebook accounts engaged in child trafficking. These accounts, which have thousands of followers, are private in nature, as disclosed by NACC executive director Undersecretary Janella Estrada.
Estrada mentioned that the NACC has been working with the Philippine National Police (PNP) since February to combat this illegal practice. A letter has been sent to Facebook requesting the removal of these pages, but the social media company is yet to respond to the request.
