US buyers spent $7m on child abuse material from Philippines — Report

Nearly 500,000 children in the Philippines were trafficked to produce child sexual exploitation material in 2022, with foreign demand helping to fuel the crime, a 2023 study by the International Justice Mission and the University of Nottingham Rights Lab estimated.

A CNN report published on Sunday revealed how children were reportedly forced by family members and other facilitators to produce sexual content for foreign customers, particularly men in the United States, who pay to watch their abuse through livestreams and private online groups.

According to CNN, figures from the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council showed that the United States was the leading buyer of child sexual abuse material produced in the Philippines between 2015 and 2023.

The council’s report also indicated that Americans spent more than $7m on illegal child abuse content from the Philippines between 2020 and 2022, CNN reported.

The investigation documented how some children were introduced to online sexual exploitation by relatives who sought to make money from foreign customers, while encrypted messaging applications and livestreaming services enabled the abuse to continue across borders.

One survivor, identified by the pseudonym Kate, told CNN that she was 13 when her adoptive older sister, Lorraine, introduced her to online sexual exploitation during the COVID-19 pandemic, after their father lost his job.

CNN said it was using aliases for both sisters to protect Kate’s identity.

According to Kate’s account to CNN, Lorraine, who had been involved in online sex work, initially asked her to attend to some of her customers. Two neighbours also allegedly involved the teenager when their clients requested younger participants.

Kate told CNN that what began as pretending to be customers’ girlfriends later escalated into demands that she wear lingerie, dance and participate in increasingly abusive acts while clients watched online.

She said she feared that some of the men might eventually travel to the Philippines and assault her in person. One American customer reportedly threatened to sexually assault her with a gun.

The CNN investigation found that, despite foreign customers driving demand, women within victims’ families were frequently implicated in facilitating the abuse.

CNN cited Philippine National Police figures showing that 32 of the 50 women arrested in the previous year for sexually abusing and exploiting children online were mothers. The police reportedly identified similar patterns in arrests made during the current year.

John Tanagho, executive director of the International Justice Mission’s Centre to End Online Sexual Exploitation of Children, told CNN that the demand from foreign customers was a major factor sustaining the crime.

“The only reason they’re abusing a child and livestreaming it is because someone in the US is willing to pay for that abuse,” he said.

CNN also interviewed another survivor, identified as Isa, who said her aunties forced her and her young cousins to participate in livestreamed sexual abuse when they were children.

Now 14, Isa told CNN that she was too young to understand why men wanted to see her naked but realised that the abuse was being carried out at the request of foreign customers.

According to CNN, court records and interviews from the period documented the abuse involving Isa and her cousins.

Isa recounted being awakened in the middle of the night to participate in livestreams, with her aunties expecting her to be available according to customers’ schedules in different time zones.

“They would say sorry to me and pray to the Lord,” she told CNN, describing what happened after the abuse.

Isa and her cousins were eventually rescued and taken to a shelter. According to their current caretakers, their case led to the conviction of a man in Switzerland and an investigation into a man in the United Kingdom.

CNN reported that child sexual abuse material was readily available through online networks, including private Telegram groups where users allegedly offered existing videos and livestreams involving children.

During its investigation, CNN said it visited several Telegram groups advertising the material and interacted with users claiming to sell child abuse videos.

The news organisation reported that some groups contained menus listing victims’ ages and genders, descriptions of sexual acts and prices for the material.

Using court documents, computer data and information provided by data breach monitor Alerts Bar, CNN said it uncovered the identities of more than a dozen consumers of child sexual abuse material produced in the Philippines.

The individuals were from several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden, and had varied professional backgrounds. Their ages ranged from their 20s to their 70s.

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CNN said all the men it named in its investigation had been convicted of, or had admitted to, crimes related to online child sexual abuse.

The CNN investigation also examined the difficulties law enforcement agencies face in tracking offenders as the crime moves from publicly accessible websites to encrypted messaging applications and livestreams.

A United States federal investigator who handles child sexual abuse material cases told CNN that livestreamed abuse was particularly difficult to prosecute because perpetrators often avoided recording their sessions, leaving investigators with limited evidence.

CNN further reported that the redeployment of investigators to immigration enforcement duties had disrupted some child sexual abuse investigations in the United States.

According to data obtained by the Cato Institute, nearly 90 per cent of Homeland Security Investigations agents, representing more than 6,000 personnel, were diverted to immigration enforcement after President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025.

CNN said some investigators believed the reassignments had caused leads to go cold and delayed ongoing cases.

One investigator told the news organisation that officers sometimes returned from immigration assignments to find that they had to rebuild investigations from the beginning.

Homeland Security Investigations did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The investigation also examined the role of messaging platforms in detecting and preventing the distribution of child sexual abuse material.

CNN reported that WhatsApp referred it to information on its website explaining how the platform identifies suspected abuse through certain data and user reports.

Viber told CNN that it used automated tools and human moderators to detect child nudity and respond to violations.

Telegram, meanwhile, told CNN it had banned more than 400,000 child abuse-related channels in 2026. The company acknowledged that banned users often attempted to create new accounts.

CNN reported that Kate, now 20, continued to struggle with the psychological consequences of the abuse, which had affected her confidence and relationships.

She told the news organisation that she once hoped to marry and preserve certain experiences for her future husband but had come to feel unworthy of love.

The American man who abused her, Carey Lee Sackmann, a former logistics company employee from Maryland, is serving a 10-year prison sentence, according to court records cited by CNN.

The investigation found that Sackmann had used multiple Skype accounts to communicate with facilitators in the Philippines and access livestreams of children being sexually abused.

According to CNN, an investigation involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations uncovered his connections with several facilitators, including Kate’s sister.

Sackmann’s youngest identified victim was estimated to be six years old.

CNN reported that Sackmann was ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution as part of a plea agreement, with Kate receiving $6,300.

Watch the video below:

𝐔𝐒 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐭 $𝟕𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 — 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭

Credit: CNN
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