Pornhub Among Sites Blocked by Duterte in Pedophile Crackdown

As part of a crackdown on child pornography, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has banned a number of x-rated websites in the country, according to his communications secretary. Sites including Pornhub and Xvideos are now reportedly inaccessible.

Since Saturday, visitors from Philippines to Pornhub, which doesn’t host child pornography, were redirected to a page with the message: “This website has been ordered blocked under authority of the Philippine government pursuant to Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Law.”

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar told journalists attending the launch of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Manila on Sunday that “these porn sites should really be banned because they are being used by pedophiles and other people who subscribe to child pornography sites.”

“We don’t want our youth and even the adults to be addicted to lewd videos shown in the internet,” Andanar said on behalf of President Duterte.

They are correct to link the sites to child pornography. While they may not show child porn themselves, they almost certainly lead people to turn to child porn. Sin is progressive, and in pornography that means two things - increasing violence and decreasing age of the participants. 

Then there is the impossibility of stopping underage children from accessing pornography. Adolescent boys, whose minds are in the process of re-wiring, develop a warped concept of girls which, I believe, is the main cause of the culture of rape in schools and universities.

Children being able to access pornography is a form of child sex abuse in itself. As such, if contact between juveniles and porn sites can be proven, those sites should be either shut down or sued for child sex abuse.

An anti-child pornography council, composed of social workers and policemen, has been given the task of identifying which sites breach the anti-child pornography law, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Rodolfo Salalima told the Inquirer.

If contact between juveniles and porn sites can be proven,

those sites should be either shut down or sued for child sex abuse

Recently-released statistics from Pornhub reveals viewers in the Philippines spend the longest time on the site. For the second consecutive year Filipinos spent longer on the site than anyone else, averaging around 12 minutes and 45 seconds per visit, ahead of South Africa in second and the US in third.