Module Title: Impact of OSEC to the Victim Survivor in Student Perspective

Module Description:

This module is focus on the impact of OSEC to children. As a social worker in the future,
it is already expected that you will be working with clients especially children who are
victims or survivors of different forms of abuse and exploitation.
It will serve as your guidelines in understanding the concept of trauma and its effect to
the individuals who are experiencing it. It also serves to understand the impact of OSEC so as
it is necessary in raising awareness, capacity building, fact finding, immediate and short-term
protection, rehabilitation, reintegration and prevention of re-victimization of the child.

Module Outline:

SESSION 1: UNDERSTANDING TRAUMA

Trauma is mind-body reaction that occurs in response to events that involve threats to
one’s physical and/or psychological security. This session is about trauma as experienced by
people. It involves identifying the potential causes of a trauma and the manifested symptoms
that helped to deeply understand the experiences and behaviors of OSEC survivors.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of the session, the students should be able to:
 Define what is trauma
 Understand the potential causes of trauma
 Identify the different categories of trauma

DURATION: 1 hour

ACTIVITY 1: OSEC Eye-Opener (Documentary Film)

This is a very powerful way for students to begin understanding what it is like to
experience a traumatic event through documentary film. It will be important to set aside some
time to talk to students about their reactions and reflection to the documentary film. It is also
important to consider giving students the option to not participate if they feel this activity might
be distressing to them. Let students know in advance that they do not need to share any
information that they feel uncomfortable to watch and discussing.

Ethical Consideration:

1. Utmost confidentiality and anonymity will be assured to the participants.

 2. Narrative interviewing, sensitive issues such as alleged physical abuse being experienced by
OSEC that will reflect to the experience of the participants, Participants can either decide to
participate or not participate.

Materials Needed: Laptop, Smart TV, Projector, White Board, Paper, Ballpen, Meta
Cards

Procedure: The facilitator will explain the importance of the existing problem of OSEC
in the Philippines and discuss the relevance of the OSEC Eye-Opener Activity. The facilitator
will present one of the documentary films that International Justice Mission creates in advocating
OSEC.

1. Individually:

Think about the following as you are watching

the documentary video;
 Watch the different documentary video of “International Justice Mission
(OSEC Documentary) –in a large group.
 Identify the four most important points in the documentary video and write it
down to the flash cards you have with you.
 Focus on role and actions of characters in the documentary video.
 List down the cause of OSEC that you have identified.

Documentary Film #1 – Cassie Story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVNusLv0550

Cassie* (not her real name ) is a brave girl who lives in the Philippines. But for nearly
five years, she was repeatedly abused and raped for an online audience. (International Justice
Mission)

Documentary Film #2 – Griselda’s Story

Late one night, 13-year-old Griselda* was grabbed by three men and violently raped at
gunpoint. It was devastating for her, and introduced a new nightmare for her family.
(International Justice Mission)

Documentary Film #3 : Elsa’s Story: A Survivor Define by Strength

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HB6zoRTdO4

Elsa (not her real name) is a survivor of sex trafficking in the Philippines. “I was treated
as a slave who is required to follow orders whether I liked it or not,” Elsa explains. Watch her
share her freedom story and the message she has for other girls still trapped. (International
Justice Mission)
 Processing: OFNR (Observation, Feelings, Needs, Recommendation)

What is Trauma?
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), trauma is “an emotional
response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster.”
However, a person may experience trauma as a response to any event they physically or
emotionally threatening or harmful. A traumatized person can feel a range of emotions both
immediately after the event and in the long term. They may feel a range of overwhelmed,
helpless, shocked or have difficulty processing their experiences. Trauma can also cause
physical symptoms.
Trauma can have a long-term effect on the person’s well-being. If symptoms persist and
do not decrease in severity, it can indicate that the trauma has developed into a mental health
disorder called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Categories of Trauma
Category Definition Trauma Type
Acute Single, isolated incident  Accident
 Natural disaster
 Single act of violence
or terrorism
 Sudden unexpected loss
Chronic Traumatic experience that is repeated and  Prolonged family or
prolonged. community violence
 Long-term illness
 Chronic bullying
 Chronic poverty and
related stressors
 Exposure to war,
torture or forced
displacement
Complex Exposure to multiple traumatic events from  Physical, emotional and
an early age, often within the caregiving sexual abuse within
system or without adequate adult support caregiving systems
that has short and long term effects in  On-going neglect by
many areas. caregivers
 Witnessing domestic
violence
 Other forms of chronic
violence without
support
Historical Collective and cumulative trauma  Systematic oppression
and experienced by a group across generations of particular groups
Racial that are still suffering the effects and across generations
 current experiences of race-based trauma.  Racism
 Discrimination
 harassment

Symptoms of Trauma
The symptoms of trauma range from mild to severe. Many factors determine how a
traumatic event affects a person, including:
 Their characteristics
 The presence of other mental health conditions
 Previous exposure to traumatic events
 The type and characteristics of the event or events
 Their background and approach to handling emotions

Emotional and Psychological Responses

A person who has experienced trauma may feel:
 Denial
 Anger
 Fear
 Sadness
 Shame
 Confusion
 Anxiety
 Depression
 Numbness
 Guilt
 Hopelessness
 Irritability
 Difficulty concentrating

They may have emotional outburst, find it difficult to cope with how they feel or
withdraw from others. Flashbacks, where a person relives the traumatic event in their mind
are common, as are nightmares.

Physical Responses
Along with an emotional reaction, trauma can cause physical symptoms, such as:
 Headaches
 Digestive systems
 Fatigue
 Racing heart
 Sweating
 Feeling jumpy

Sometimes, a person will also experience hyper-arousal, or when someone feels as

though they are in constant state of alertness. This may make it difficult to sleep. Individuals
may also go on to develop other mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety and
substance abuse problems.
Potential Causes of Trauma
 Bullying
 Harassment
 Physical, psychological or sexual abuse
 Sexual assault
 Traffic collisions
 Childbirth
 Life threatening illnesses
 Sudden loss of a loved one
 Being attacked
 Being kidnapped
 Acts of terrorism
 Natural disasters
 War

Traumatic events can be isolated or repeated, on-going events. A person can also
experience trauma after witnessing something traumatic happening to someone else. People
have different reactions to traumatic events. For example, those who live through the same
natural disaster can respond very differently despite experiencing the same

SESSION 2: HOW OSEC SURVIVORS VIEW ABOUT THEIR EXPLOITATION AND

IT’S SUGGESTED INTERVENTION FOR PROTECTING CHILDREN AGAINST
OSEC

This session will be anchored base on the research results that was conducted by PAVE
Project and National Study on Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children in the
Philippines with its purpose to develop and strengthen systems for comprehensive care of
survivors of OSEC.
According to the National Study on Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children in
the Philippines, The Philippines has emerged as the center of child sex abuse materials
production in the world, with 80% of Filipino children vulnerable to online sexual abuse, some
facilitated even by their own parents (UNICEF, 2016). Some of the sociocultural, social, cultural
and economic factors contributing to the high concentration of online sexual abuse and
exploitation of children (OSAEC) in the country are English language literacy, availability and
ease of access to technology, well-established financial transaction facilities, and absence of
perceived conflict between sexual exploitation and significant social norms.

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of the session, the students should be able to:

  To understand how OSEC survivors view about their exploitation
 To Identify the different possible Intervention for Protecting Children against OSEC

Duration: 1 hour

ACTIVITY 2: #Hashtag Slogan OSEC Campaign Activity

Materials Needed: BondPaper , Coloring Materials , Pencil, ballpen , Eraser , Manila

Paper

Procedure: The facilitator will distribute all the drawing materials to the students and let the
students find a comfortable place where they can start making their Slogan OSEC Campaign.
The facilitator will discuss the objectives of the said activity.

Ethical Consideration:

1. Utmost confidentiality and anonymity will be assured to the participants.

2. Narrative interviewing, sensitive issues such as alleged physical abuse being
experienced by OSEC that will reflect to the experience of the participants,
Participants can either decide to participate or not participate.

Individually: (Student)

 Given all the materials for the activity. Make a Slogan OSEC Campaign that you
feel that it’s very helpful to advocate OSEC.
 It’s either thru Drawing or Hashtag Slogan
 After making it, explain to the class why you choose to draw or use that Hashtag
Slogan base of your realization and goal to end OSEC.

Inputs:

The research conducted by PAVE Project and National Study on Online Sexual Abuse
and Exploitation of Children in the Philippines summarized eight defining themes in the
treatment of OSEC survivors, and they are the following:

Theme 1: Survivors often lack signs of observable trauma.

Social workers reported that there are few signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD) among survivors which was often dependent on the type of abuse experienced—photos,
videos, live-streaming, or physical contact. Moreover, the lack of symptoms of the survivors
makes the treatment and the social worker’s job more challenging. However, the fact that OSEC
survivors experienced abuse is more than enough to impact social worker’s perception of their
clients. As the treatment continues, showing of trauma behaviors also increases as clients
become more educated about their experience.

Theme 2: Survivors don’t always perceive OSEC as abuse.

Describing their experience as abusive can be difficult for the survivors. Most commonly,
they believe they weren’t sexually or physically abuse since it’s only a photo or video. Also,
survivors may struggle to understand that their loved ones are abusing them as they believe their
behavior helps the family meet ends meet. They rather feel proud for being able to provide the
family’s needs.

Theme 3: Survivors often have pre-existing family dysfunctions.

Often, the family already has history of verbal and physical abuse. Some parents are also
neglectful, not monitoring their children’s doing especially their social media screen time. All
these dysfunctionality in the family gives the child limited to no life skills when rescued to the
center.

Theme 4: Survivors are traumatized by the rescue.

Many OSEC survivors felt that they were captured, not rescued. They may describe the
experience as terrifying and traumatic. They may blame the police and service providers for
taking them away and causing problem in their family. This thought makes them difficult to trust
social workers in return. Lastly, the rescue can be very confusing and chaotic for them, leading
to further traumatization.

Theme 5: Survivors struggle with separation from family.

Survivors still miss their family and feel lonely even after understanding that their family
were harming them. More so, reintegration with family is slow and a lengthy process, creating
confusion among survivors. From a social worker’s perspective, it is very stressful and traumatic
for the children to be separated from their families regardless of the services provided for them in
the shelter.

Theme 6: Many survivors have difficulty opening up to counselors.

Survivors fear that speaking up will put their loved one to jail. They also feel shame
about their behavior during the OSEC activities, thinking the social workers will scold or yell at
them. Above all, their past experiences, including the rescue, made it difficult for them to trust
and open up to their social workers or counselors.

Theme 7: Pyschoeducation is important for survivors.

Psychoeducation not only teaches OSEC survivors what is abuse, its impacts to a person,
and consequences of doing so, but also enlighten them about their own experience. Furthermore,
it helps decrease negative feelings such as shame and self-blame, thinking what happened to
them is not their fault. Most especially, psychoeducation prevents future abuse as they are now
aware and can protect themselves from abusive situations.

Theme 8: Survivors require time and patience to heal.

 From the social worker’s perspective, it is hard to gain trust as a service provider. They
have to be consistent of their own words and actions as the survivors love it when they feel their
utmost sincerity in helping them. Moreover, the counselor have to be patient to overcome their
lack of trust, lack of disclosure, and abuse denial effectively. Treatment strategies are not
enough. Survivors have to be told over and over again that it’s not their fault their parents got
apprehended. Patience must be carried out everyday as these survivors are still confused about
their situation, deep down.

The following are the recommendations of the National Study on Online Sexual Abuse
and Exploitation of Children in the Philippines for protecting children against OSAEC:

a. Create an integrated framework for responding to OSAEC-related cases covering the

continuum of interventions—from prevention, identification, reporting, rescue, trial, and
after care —that will involve the review of existing laws and policies and promotion of
effective collaboration among different government and non-government agencies.
Adopting an integrated framework is a prerequisite for a more efficient and integrative
collaborative work of the different stakeholders.
b. Protect children from psychological harm. Develop a child-sensitive rescue protocol that
prevents the victim from experiencing more trauma. Temporary shelters for victims—
from rescue to inquest—are also needed. During investigation, acceptance of digital
evidence presented by law enforcement as sufficient to prosecute the alleged offender can
spare the child victim from testifying in court. Children should also be protected from
media coverage of OSAEC cases.
c. Have mental health professionals, i.e., licensed psychologists and guidance counselors
provide appropriate psychosocial interventions for victims. Strengthen services in
halfway homes to quickly provide the children a sense of safety and security even before
they are transferred to shelters. More importantly, there is merit to study optimization of
relevant laws that encourage community-based approaches such as the Foster Care Act.
This ensures that children rescued have other placement options and are not only
endorsed in alternative residential facilities but are supported in home environment
setting.

For Family and Community

a. Provide a reform program that aims to rehabilitate parents who were involved in OSAEC
cases.
b. Provide sustainable livelihood programs for families in the community and inculcate the
value of hard-earned money acquired legally.
c. Conduct programs for families and the community to educate them on how to deal with
children who will be reintegrated so that the children will not experience secondary
victimization and will thrive despite their OSAEC experience.
d. Spread public awareness across schools, communities, churches, and families on proper
Internet use; the nature of OSAEC and its impacts on the child, the family, and the
community; and its identification and prevention.
 e. At the barangay level, educate leaders on child protection and OSAEC. Strengthen the
local council for protection of children and carry out information campaigns on OSAEC-
related laws. Have barangay officials visit homes as a measure of prevention and
intervention.

For Case Resolution and Management

a. Allow for less stringent requirements in obtaining search warrants when dealing with
OSAEC cases.
b. Provide continuous training

i. to address relocation of trained law enforcement staff;

ii. on terminologies and the use of search engines to spot OSAEC cases;
iii. for investigators on evidence required by courts;
iv. for prosecutors and judges on OSAEC laws and on authentication of
electronic/digital evidence;
v. for National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police on
protocols for investigating OSAEC;
vi. fortheircounterpartsinprovincesand/orregionstoaddressaccuracyofreportson
detection, investigation, and case build-up;
vii. for lawyers on effective presentation of digital evidence so it can become
admissible in court; and
viii. for social workers on enhancing the design of intervention programmes from the
rescue to aftercare, which could include placement of children.

b. Propose rules to make OSAEC cases an exception to the Anti-Wiretapping Act because
some evidence is deemed inadmissible with respect to this law.
c. Significantly increase efficiency in securing evidence, rescuing victims, and coordinating
with other agencies.
d. Adopt standard terminologies that cut across government and non-government service
providers, making clear how child pornography, cyber-bullying, and online grooming are
defined and reflected in law. This is to ensure that stakeholders have a harmonized
understanding of the various forms of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
e. Protocols for each phase of the case management system (from reporting to aftercare with
specific roles of all involved parties) should be explicitly defined, understood, and
followed across the country to make OSAEC response sustainable. Internal protocols in
organizations may exist but may not be clear as to when the case is to be taken to the next
phase or service provider (e.g., referral of a small NGO to the police). One area that can
be studied is on aftercare where children are in community-based rehabilitation
programmes, in order to understand the level of support and security that must be given
for children rescued and the homes that will care for them.

For Government and International Partners

 a. Enhance information-sharing of all agencies involved (including courts) on OSAEC cases
through a centralized database system for prevention and monitoring.
b. Strengthen secretariat and coordinative functions of the Inter-Agency Council Against
Child Pornography (IACACP) to ensure facility in information-sharing, resource
mobilization, and linking with other like-minded organizations and councils; provision of
support to member organizations; and monitoring of the implementation of the council’s
strategic plan.
c. Provide logistical support for law enforcement agencies dealing with OSAEC (i.e.,
increase operational budget and budget for purchase of needed equipment).
d. Expand OSAEC-related satellite offices in the regions (e.g., address congested facilities).
e. Provide debriefing and regular psychosocial services for first responders and child
advocates (including house parents in shelters) to prevent secondary trauma or vicarious
traumatization and burnout among those involved in OSAEC.
f. Enforce provisions in the law requiring financial institutions and remittance centers to act
on OSAEC-related transactions.

For UNICEF

a. Continue to conduct research on OSAEC so that more evidence-based recommendations

for prevention, identification, and response can be made, including the impact and
application of community-based rehabilitation programmes as opposed to alternative
residential facilities.
b. Support awareness-raising and capacity-building programs for regional, local service
providers, and local officials (from provincial to barangay levels).
c. Support advocacy and information campaigns for targeted stakeholders who are not
aware of OSAEC but are in a position to influence change.
d. Support the production of a more harmonized, integrated guidebook in handling OSAEC
cases to include non-government players, based on a more focused and in-depth study of
case management processes.

Synthesis:

This session, focused on Understanding Trauma. In accordance to the American

Psychological Association (APA), Trauma is an “emotional response to a terrible event like
an accident, rape or natural disaster. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are
typical. Longer term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained
relationships and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea”. The person
experiencing trauma may developed a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
According to Analytics for Living (2015), some people acquire PTSD (post-traumatic
stress disorder) after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening incident, such as battle, a
natural catastrophe, a vehicle accident, or sexual assault. A person experiencing this disorder
has a little control over what's going on during this type of incident, and may be terrified.
All things considered; this session will allow the students to understand about
trauma. This session will help students to expand their knowledge about different categories,
 types, symptoms, and the potential causes of trauma. Also, the person’s physical, emotional
and psychological responses to a terrible event. The use of evidence-based treatment
approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy to alleviate different trauma-related mental
health issues is appropriate when working with a traumatized client.
The students have to take into consideration the principle of social work in working
with their future clients whose has the symptoms of trauma. To practice the acceptance of the
client as they are, the individualization, non-judgmental attitudes towards the client case, and
the privacy and confidentiality towards the case of the client. In working with a vulnerable
individual, the self-awareness of the worker must be realized in order to avoid triggering any
overwhelming traumatic event of the client

Reading Guide:

Module 2 – Impact of OSEC To Victims/Survivors

Evaluation

 At the end of the session, the teacher will be going to ask the students with regards to the
concept discussed in the session and make a brief sharing about themselves experiencing
trauma.
1. Based on the situations mentioned and discussed in the session, did they also experience
trauma in the past?
2. As a future social worker, what advice can you give to people experiencing trauma?

 At the end of the session, the teacher will provide a 50 multiple questions with regards to
the concept discussed, to check if the students familiarized and understand the 2 sessions.

Teacher’s Note/Recommendation:
In accordance with the pertinent provisions of Republic Act No. 7722 otherwise known “Higher
Education Act of 1994” and with the CMO No. 39 series of 2017. This Module will be put into
consideration in the following Social Work Major Subjects;

1. Social Work Filipino Realities

2. Fields in Social Works