In 2025, Eleison launched a new research project in collaboration with the University of Nottingham Rights Lab and the International Justice Mission (IJM) exploring people’s reliance upon public justice systems for addressing the Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC) in the Philippines. This study seeks to understand community members’ level of trust in engaging with public justice systems and the extent to which vulnerable communities feel they can safely and effectively access the justice system. In 2022, the Rights Lab and IJM found that 1 in 100 children were trafficked to produce new child sexual exploitation material that year in the Philippines. Our new research study is an important step toward improving the systems to protect children who are vulnerable to OSEC.
Eleison is leading the qualitative data collection for this national research project, collecting data in Manila, the Visayas region, and Mindanao. Our qualitative data collection includes key informant interviews (KIIs) with justice system representatives, service providers, and community stakeholders in positions to notice and report this form of abuse. Additionally, we are leading focus group discussions (FGDs) with OSEC and commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) survivors to understand survivors’ experiences reporting to public justice systems and their recommendations for how to strengthen public justice system responses.
We have completed data collection with community stakeholders in the Visayas region and are nearing completion of study KIIs in Mindanao and Manila. We are preparing to launch FGDs with OSEC and CSEC survivors in mid-to-late March. Throughout the study, the Eleison team has also led facilitation of the Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) for this project, a research advisory board comprised of people with lived experience of OSEC and other forms of human trafficking. LEAP members have been involved in the development of qualitative data collection tools and will serve as advisors in data analysis, dissemination of study findings, and research uptake. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the Rights Lab team in completing this important research and strengthening systems to protect children from OSEC.
