BE careful of your online friend, especially if you “met” him or her on the Net.
The police yesterday warned netizens who find friends through social networking sites such as Facebook to be careful since there has been an upsurge of rape cases and most of the victims were Facebook addicts who were raped by their “friends” once they agreed to an “eyeball.”
Newly-retired Chief Supt. Yolanda P. Tanigue said they recorded an increase in the cases of women and children being raped after agreeing to have a personal meeting with their Facebook friends.
A recent study showed that 70 percent of students have had sexual solicitations from the Internet through Facebook and other social networking sites. Mobile phones have also been used to solicit sex, said lawyer Janette Saguisag, one of the convenors of an ongoing summit on women and children protection at Camp Crame.
Tanigue said they investigated scores of cases wherein the victims were abused by total strangers with whom they had online chats.
The country’s first female police general said that in 2009, the Philippine National Police recorded a total of 3,018 cases of rape across the country. Metro Manila, Southern Mindanao, Central Luzon, Calabarzon and Central Visayas each had more than 300 cases.
The police also recorded 211 cases of incestuous rape cases last year, the biggest number of which took place in Southern Mindanao with 46 followed by Bicol with 31 and Western Visayas, 28.
Tanigue also warned of the rising number of “sextortion,” wherein victims are mostly employees subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses. These employees agree to have sex with their superior due to intimidation or in exchange for promotion. These cases happen in government, police and military service.
During the first semester of 2010, Tanigue said they recorded 1,724 rape cases, 172 of which occurred in Western Visayas. The Bicol Region had the second highest cases at 156, followed by Southern Mindanao, 149, Central Luzon, 144, Metro Manila,142, Central Visayas,138, and Northern Mindanao,113.
Of the rape victims in 2009, 762 were women while 490 were children.
Rape victims who are between 15 and 17 years old have been surfacing to file complaints against their attackers, mostly their fathers or other close relatives. “These are the victims who are being abused since they were nine years old,” she said.
Alfred Dalizon, Journal Online
Subject: FACEBOOK FUELING RAPES 
Sat Oct 09, 2010 7:32 am
