Many FB groups selling babies shut down but 5 continue — NACC

Facebook groups selling babies online were cut down to five from 23, the National Authority for Child Care (NACC) said Tuesday.

NACC’s Domestic Administrative Adoption Division chief Imelda Ronda said that 20 of the groups that they identified have either deactivated their accounts or were shut down by authorities.

However, three groups have resurfaced along with two new groups that were recently discovered, the NACC official added.

“Yes po, marami na po talaga dito sa mga account sa social media ang nawala na po, either nag self-deactivate po o yung iba naman po ay taken down,” Ronda said in a Bagong Pilipinas public briefing.

(Yes, many of these accounts were already shut down. They were either deactivated or taken down.)

“So mayroon na lamang pong tatlo na actually kababalik lang  ulit last week, mayroon dalawang bagong accounts kaming nakita ngayon.”

(So what we have now are three that just resurfaced last week and we just discovered two new accounts.)

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) earlier raised the alarm on the illegal adoption and sale of babies online, noting that it is a cruel form of child exploitation and human trafficking.

The DSWD issued the warning after police arrested a woman and her agent for selling her eight-day old infant for P90,000. 

Authorities recently rescued  two children  in Catarman, Samar - a two-month-old infant and a two-year-old toddler - after they were sold by their mother for P30,000 each, the NACC said. 

The NACC also said that continuous monitoring by authorities is important as it is currently very easy to create Facebook groups and use other names to hide their illegal activities.

But the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center has a scheme to track down perpetrators. 

“Actually, last June 3, nakipag-pulong po ang aming executive director sa DICT, sa Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center. So they told us na that they have the platform to identify and track a specific perpetrator. Ang nagiging sagabal lang po ay kapag anonymous,” said Ronda. 

(Actually, last June 3, our executive director met with DICT’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center. So they told us that they have the platform to identify and track a specific perpetrator. The only problem is when the account is anonymous.)

“Pero may ginagawa na po ang DICT CICC na mga paraan para talagang lumutang ang mga pangalan ng mga account sa isang Facebook group na naka-hide,” she added.

(But the DICT CICC already has found several ways to identify accounts in a hidden Facebook group.)

Further, the NACC also said that it recently discussed the matter with Meta, the company behind social media giant Facebook.—RF, GMA Integrated News