REPUBLIC ACT NO.

7610
SPECIAL PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
AGAINST CHILD ABUSE,
EXPLOITATION AND DISCRIMINATION
(AS AMENDED)
Approved: June 17, 1992
Definition of Terms (Section 3)
Child abuse
It is the maltreatment, whether habitual or not, of the child which includes any of the following:
1. Psychological and physical abuse, neglect, cruelty, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment;
2. Any act by deeds or words which debases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of a child
as a human being;
3. Unreasonable deprivation of his basic needs for survival, such as food and shelter; or
4. Failure to immediately give medical treatment to an injured child resulting in serious impairment of his
growth and development or in his permanent incapacity or death.
Circumstances which gravely threaten or endanger
the survival and normal development of children"
These include, but are not limited to, the following;
1. Being in a community where there is armed conflict or being affected by armed conflict-related activities;
2. Working under conditions hazardous to life, safety and normal which unduly interfere with their normal
development;
3. Living in or fending for themselves in the streets of urban or rural areas without the care of parents or a
guardian or basic services needed for a good quality of life;
4. Being a member of a indigenous cultural community and/or living under conditions of extreme poverty or
in an area which is underdeveloped and/or lacks or has inadequate access to basic services needed for
a good quality of life;
5. Being a victim of a man-made or natural disaster or calamity; or
6. Other analogous circumstances which endanger the life, safety or normal development of children.
Acts Punishable
1. Child prostitution and other sexual abuse Section 5 (See Art. 340 under Book Two)
Note: Under Section 6, there is an attempt to commit child prostitution.
2. Child trafficking
Note: Under Section 8, there is an attempt to commit child trafficking,
3. Engagement of children in obscene publications and indecent shows
4. Engagement of children in the worst forms of child labor (Section 12-D)
5. Employment of children as model in advertisement directly or indirectly promoting alcoholic beverages,
intoxicating drinks, tobacco and its byproducts, gambling or any form of violence or pornography
(Section 14)
6. Discrimination of children of indigenous cultural communities (Section 20)
7. Other Acts of Neglect, Abuse, Cruelty or Exploitation and Other Conditions Prejudicial to the Child's
Development (Section 10)
Children Exploited in Prostitution and Other Sexual Abuse (Section 5)
Children, whether male or female, who for money, profit or any other consideration or due to the coercion or
influence of any adult, syndicate or group, indulge in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct.
Persons Liable:
1. Those who engage in or promote, facilitate or induce child prostitution which include, but are not limited
to, the following:
a. Acting as a procurer of a child prostitute

b. Inducing a person to be a client of a child prostitute by means of written or oral advertisements or

other similar means
c. Taking advantage of influence or relationship to procure a child as a prostitute
d. Threatening or using violence towards a child to engage him as a prostitute.
e. Giving monetary consideration, goods or other pecuniary benefit to a child with the intent to engage
such child in prostitution;
2. Those who commit the act of sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct with a child exploited in prostitution
or subjected to other sexual abuse;
3. Those who derive profit on advantage therefrom, whether as manager or owner of the establishment
where the prostitution takes place or of the sauna, disco, bar, resort, place of entertainment or
establishment serving as a cover or which engages in prostitution in addition to activity for which the
license has been issued to said establishment.
Attempt to Commit Child Prostitution (Section 6)
Persons Liable:
1. Any person, who not being a relative of a child, is found alone with the said child inside the room or
cubicle of a house, an inn, hotel, motel, pension house, apartelle or other similar establishments, vessel,
vehicle or any other hidden or secluded area under circumstances which would lead a reasonable
person to believe that the child is about to be exploited in prostitution and other sexual abuse;
2. Any person is receiving services from a child in a sauna parlor or bath, massage clinic, health club and
other similar establishments.
Child Trafficking (Section 7)
Any person who shall engage in trading and dealing with children including, but not limited to, the act of
buying and selling of a child for money, or for any other consideration, or barter.
Attempt to Commit Child Trafficking (Section 8) - There is an attempt to commit child trafficking:
1. When a child travels alone to a foreign country without valid reason therefor and without clearance issued
by the Department of Social Welfare and Development or written permit or justification from the child's
parents or legal guardian;
2. When a person, agency, establishment or child-caring institution recruits women or couples to bear
children for the purpose of child trafficking; or
3. When a doctor, hospital or clinic official or employee, nurse, midwife, local civil registrar or any other
person simulates birth for the purpose of child trafficking; or
4. When a person engages in the act of finding children among low-income families, hospitals, clinics,
nurseries, day-care centers, or other child-during institutions who can be offered for the purpose of child
trafficking.
Obscene Publications and Indecent Shows
(Section 9) Any person who shall hire, employ, use, persuade, induce or coerce a child to perform in
obscene exhibitions and indecent shows, whether live or in video, or model in obscene publications or
pornographic materials or to sell or distribute the said materials.
Other Acts of Abuse (Section 10)
1. Any person who shall commit any other acts of child abuse, cruelty or exploitation or to be responsible for
other conditions prejudicial to the child's development.
2. Any person who shall keep or have in his company a minor, twelve (12) years or under or who in ten (10)
years or more his junior in any public or private place, hotel, motel, beer joint, discotheque, cabaret,
pension house, sauna or massage parlor, beach and/or other tourist resort or similar.
Provided, that this provision shall not apply to any person who is related within the fourth degree of
consanguinity or affinity or any bond recognized by law, local custom and tradition or acts in the
performance of a social, moral or legal duty.
3. Any person who shall induce, deliver or offer a minor to any one prohibited by this Act to keep or have in
his company a minor as provided in the preceding paragraph.
4. Any person, owner, manager or one entrusted with the operation of any public or private place of
accommodation, whether for occupancy, food, drink or otherwise, including residential places, who
allows any person to take along with him to such place or places any minor herein described.
5. Any person who shall use, coerce, force or intimidate a street child or any other child to:
a. Beg or use begging as a means of living;
b. Act as conduit or middlemen in drug trafficking or pushing; or

c. Conduct any illegal activities.

Sanctions for Establishments or Enterprises (Section 11)
1. All establishments and enterprises which promote or facilitate child prostitution and other sexual abuse,
child trafficking, obscene publications and indecent shows, and other acts of abuse shall be immediately
closed and their authority or license to operate cancelled, without prejudice to the owner or manager
thereof being prosecuted under this Act and/or the Revised Penal Code, as amended, or special laws.
2. An establishment shall be deemed to promote or facilitate child prostitution and other sexual abuse, child
trafficking, obscene publications and indecent shows, and other acts of abuse if the acts constituting the
same occur in the premises of said establishment under this Act or in violation of the Revised Penal
Code, as amended. An enterprise such as a sauna, travel agency, or recruitment agency which:
promotes the aforementioned acts as part of a tour for foreign tourists; exhibits children in a lewd or
indecent show; provides child masseurs for adults of the same or opposite sex and said services include
any lascivious conduct with the customers; or solicits children or activities constituting the
aforementioned acts shall be deemed to have committed the acts penalized herein.
Employment of Children (Section 12) - Children below 15 years of age shall not be employed except:
1. Child works directly under the sole responsibility of his/her parents or legal guardian and where only
members of his/her family are employed: provided, however, that his/her employment neither endangers
his/her life, safety, health and morals, nor impairs his/her normal development: provided further that the
parent or legal guardian shall provide the said minor child with the prescribed primary and/or secondary
education.
2. Childs employment or participation in public entertainment or information through cinema, theater, radio
or television is essential: provided that employment contract is concluded by the childs parents or legal
guardian, with the express agreement of the child concerned, if possible, and the approval of the
Department of Labor and Employment: provided further that the following requirements in all instances
are strictly complied with: (PMP)
a. Employer shall ensure the protection, health, safety, morals and normal development of the child;
b. Employer institute measures to prevent the childs exploitation or discrimination taking into account
system and level of remuneration and the duration and arrangement of working time;
c. Employer shall formulate and implement, subject to the approval and supervision of competent
authorities, a continuing program for training and skills acquisition of the child.
General Rule: No child below 15 shall be employed.
Exceptions:
a. When a child works directly under the sole responsibility of his parents or legal guardian and where only
members of the employer's family, provided that
i. Employment does not endanger childs life, safety and health and morals, nor impairs his normal
development;
ii. Parent or legal guardian shall provide the said minor child with the prescribed primary and/or
secondary education;
b. When a child's employment or participation in public & entertainment or information through cinema,
theater, radio or television is essential provided that
i. Employment contract concluded by the child's parent or guardian, with the express agreement of the
child concerned, if possible, and the approval of the DOLE and the following requisites are met:
ii. the employer shall ensure the protection, health, safety and morals of the child;
iii. the employer shall institute measures to prevent the child's exploitation or discrimination taking into
account the system and level of remuneration, and the duration and arrangement of working time; and
iv. the employer shall formulate and implement, subject to the approval and supervision of competent
authorities, a continuing program for training and skill acquisition of the child.
v.Employment does not involve commercials or advertisements promoting alcoholic beverages,
intoxicating drinks, tobacco and its byproducts and violence (Section 14).
Hours of Work of a Working Child (Section 12-A)
Age
Provision

Below 15
years of
age

15 years of
age but
below 18

May be allowed to work for not more

than 20 hours a week: provided that
the work shall not be more than 4
hours at any given day
Not allowed to work between 8:00
PM and 6:00 AM of the following day
Not allowed to work for more than 8
hours a day and in no case beyond
40 hours a week
Not allowed to work between 10:00
PM and 6:00 AM the following day

Worst Forms of Child Labor (Section 12-D) (SHIP)

1. All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery;
2. Use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic
performances;
3. Use, procuring or offering of a child for illegal or illicit activities;
4. Work which, by its nature or circumstances in which it is carried out, is hazardous or likely to be harmful
to the health, safety or morals of children, such that it:
a. Debases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of a child as a human being; or
b. Exposes the child to physical, emotional or sexual abuse, or is found to be highly stressful
psychologically or may prejudice morals; or
c.Performed underground, underwater or at dangerous heights; or
d.Involves the use of dangerous machinery, equipment and tools; or
e. Exposes the child to physical danger or which requires the manual transport of heavy loads; or
f. Performed in an unhealthy environment exposing the child to hazardous working conditions, elements,
substances, co-agents or processes involving ionizing, radiation, fire, flammable substances, noxious
components and the like, or to extreme temperatures, noise levels or vibrations; or
g. Performed under particularly difficult conditions; or
h. Exposes the child to biological agents; or
i. Involves the manufacture or handling of explosives and other pyrotechnic products.

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9775

ANTI-CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
ACT OF 2009
Approved: November 17, 2009

Definition of Terms (Section 3)

Child
It refers to persons below eighteen (18) years of age or those over but are unable to fully take care of
themselves or protect themselves from abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation or discrimination because of a
physical or mental disability or condition.
Further, child shall also refer to:
1. A person, regardless of age, who is presented, depicted or believed to be a child as defined herein; and
2. A computer-generated, digitally or manually crafted images or graphics of a person who is represented or
who is made to appear to be a child as defined herein.

Child Pornography
It refers to any public or private representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated
explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for primarily sexual purposes.

Child Pornography Materials

It is the means and methods by which child pornography is carried out:
1. As to form:
a. Visual depiction - which includes not only images of real children but also digital image, computer
image or computer-generated image that is indistinguishable from that of real children engaging in an
explicit sexual activity. Visual depiction shall include:
i. Undeveloped film and videotapes;
ii. Data and/ or images stored on a computer disk or by electronic means capable of conversion into a
visual image;
iii. Photograph, film, video, picture, digital image or picture, computer image or picture, whether made
or produced by electronic, mechanical or other means;
iv. Drawings, cartoons, sculptures or paintings depicting children; or
v. Other analogous visual depiction; or
b. Audio representation of a person who is or is represented as being a child and who is engaged in or is
represented as being engaged in explicit sexual activity, or an audio representation that advocates,
encourages or counsels any sexual activity with children. It shall include audio recordings and live
audio transmission conveyed through whatever medium including real-time internet communications;
or
c. Written text or material that advocates or counsels explicit sexual activity with a child and whose
dominant characteristic is the description, for a sexual purpose, of an explicit sexual activity with a
child.
1. As to content:
It includes representation of a person who is, appears to be, or is represented as being a child, the
dominant characteristic of which is the depiction, for a sexual purpose, of:
a. The sexual organ or the anal region, or a representation thereof; or
b. The breasts, or a representation of the breasts, of a female person.
Explicit Sexual Activity
It refers to actual or simulated:
1. Sexual intercourse or lascivious act including, but not limited to, contact involving genital to genital, oral to
genital, anal to genital or oral to anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex;
2. Bestiality;
3. Masturbation;
4. Sadistic or masochistic abuse;
5. Exhibition of the genitals, buttocks, breast, pubic area and/or anus; or
6. Use of any object or instrument for lascivious acts.
Internet Address
It pertains to a website, bulletin board service, internet chat room or news group, or any other internet or
shared network protocol address.
Internet Caf or Kiosk
It refers to an establishment that offers or proposes to offer services to the public for the use of its
computer/s or computer system for the purpose of accessing the Internet, computer games or related
services.
Internet Content Host
It refers to a person who hosts or who proposes to host Internet content in the Philippines.
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
It refers to a person or entity that supplies, or proposes to supply, an Internet carriage service to the public.
Luring
It means the act of communicating, by means of a computer system, with a child or someone who the
offender believes to be a child for the purpose of facilitating the commission of a sexual activity or
production of child pornography.
Grooming

It refers to the act of preparing a child or someone who the offender believes to be a child for a sexual
activity or sexual relationship by communicating child pornography. It includes online enticement, or
enticement through any other means.
Primarily sexual purposes
It refers to purposes which will fulfill all the following conditions:
1. The average person applying contemporary community standards would find the work taken as a whole
appealing to prurient interest and satisfying only the market for gratuitous sex and violence;
2. The work depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way; and
3. The work taken as a whole imbued within its context, manner or presentation, intention and culture,
lascivious, literary, artistic, political and scientific value.
Acts Punishable (Section 4): (CHEW-P5 FEK)
1. To conspire to commit any of the prohibited acts stated in this section. Conspiracy to commit any form of
child pornography shall be committed when two (2) or more persons come to an agreement concerning
the commission of any of the said prohibited acts and decide to commit it;
2. To hire, employ, use, persuade, induce or coerce a child to perform in the creation or production of any
form of child pornography;
3. To engage in the luring or grooming of a child;
4. To willfully access any form of child pornography;
5. To produce, direct, manufacture or create any form of child pornography;
6. To publish offer, transmit, sell, distribute, broadcast, advertise, promote, export or import any form of child
pornography;
7. To possess any form of child pornography with the intent to sell, distribute, publish, or broadcast:
Provided.
Note: Possession of three (3) or more articles of child pornography of the same form shall be prima facie
evidence of the intent to sell, distribute, publish or broadcast;
8. For a parent, legal guardian or person having custody or control of a child to knowingly permit the child to
engage, participate or assist in any form of child pornography;
9. To possess any form of child pornography.
For film distributors, theaters and telecommunication companies, by themselves or in cooperation with other
entities, to distribute any form of child pornography;
10. To engage in pandering of any form of child pornography;
11. To knowingly, willfully and intentionally provide a venue for the commission of prohibited acts as, but not
limited to, dens, private rooms, cubicles, cinemas, houses or in establishments purporting to be a
legitimate business;
Syndicated Child Pornography (Section 5)
If carried out by a group of three (3) or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another.
Who May File a Complaint (Section 6): (O-PABLO-PALO)
1. Offended party
2. Parents or guardians
3. Ascendant or collateral relative within the third degree of consanguinity
4. Barangay chairman
5. Local social welfare development officer
6. Officer, social worker or representative of a licensed child-caring institution
7. Any person who has personal knowledge of the circumstances of the commission of any offense under
this Act
8. At least 3 concerned responsible citizens residing in the place where the violation occurred
9. Any law enforcement officer
10. Officer or social worker of the DSWD