Child cyberpornography an issue of dignity, chastity, decency

The banner story of Inquirer’s Jan 19 issue (“It’s war vs ‘kiddie’ porn”) brought to the nation’s attention the growing incidence of child cyberpornography in the Philippines. It is very commendable that our law enforcers are doing their best to arrest the perpetrators of these crimes. We are faced here with crimes committed against people who are typically innocent and can hardly defend themselves—children. Hence, these crimes carry a more serious degree of outrageousness.

But even more distressing is that in some cases, child cybersex is committed with the complicity of their parents who, driven by poverty, give their consent in exchange for a sizable amount of money. Parents ought to be the first and best protectors of their children. We all know of stories of parents willing to give up all material goods and comfort, even their lives, for their children. But if parents drop their defenses and willingly give their children to crime for some financial benefits, even if the reason might be for survival, then there must be something

really awry here.

There is a value that I think we must always uphold, no matter what the circumstances might be: the dignity and worth of each person. Child cybersex converts the child into an object, thus setting aside his or her dignity as a person. It is an affront against the child’s humanity. It destroys the child’s innocence and even his or her life from then on.

Related to this value is another one: chastity. This virtue is not very sellable in our day and time. To put it simply, chastity is the attitude of the person who respects the dignity of his or her own sexuality and that of others, such that the person’s human sexuality is ordered to love and communion, which can be conjugal love (marriage) or celibacy for the sake of service to God and others.

Some 250 years ago, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill theorized that man is driven by the passion to seek happiness, and they identified happiness with pleasure. But Mill also said that what is morally good is what gives man happiness and what causes pain is evil. Such claims are over-simplifications, as we know very well that certain goods cannot be attained without pain (no pain, no gain, as a saying goes). But the disheartening thing is that what stuck in many people’s minds is the idea that what gives pleasure gives happiness, and that such pleasure is morally good.

And so, we find people who cannot understand the value of chastity which might demand at times restraint from sexual pleasures so as to safeguard the value of the dignity of persons and respect for them. This respect and restraint ought to be distinguishable in our public and private lives, in our TV programs and movies, in our dress codes and work ethics, in our fashion and arts, in our songs and theater, in our rest and recreation, in our family and professional dealings. We usually call it “decency.”

I would suggest that we Filipinos uphold this value and virtue as something very close to our culture and identity.

—FR. CECILIO L. MAGSINO,

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