GLOBE Telecom Inc. (Globe) blocked a total of 489,849 online sites featuring child pornography last year, up 22 percent from the 401,487 online sites blacklisted in 2022.

"[T]he number of disabled URLs (uniform resource locators or web addresses), hosting lewd content also went up by 21.8 percent, reaching 486,802 in the whole of 2023 from 399,550 in the previous year," Globe said in a statement on Sunday.

"The figure for blocked domains also saw a 56.5 percent increase to 3,047 in 2023 from 1,947 domains in the same period the year before," it added.

The telco noted that it had invested $2.7 million in content filtering systems to upgrade its site-blocking capabilities.

"We believe that a safer digital environment for our children requires a multi-pronged approach," Globe Chief Information Security Officer Anton Bonifacio said.

"Beyond blocking harmful content, we want to foster a culture of vigilance, awareness, and collaboration to protect the most vulnerable members of our society from the pervasive threats that lurk online," he added.

Through the #MakeITSafePH campaign launched in 2017, Globe said that it was actively aligning its efforts with the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 (Republic Act 9775), which requires all internet service providers (ISPs) to deploy technologies that prevent access to or the transmission of child pornography.

This highlights the need for a sustained effort to protect children online, it added, as the Philippines has been tagged by the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as a leading source of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children content.

Globe's share price was up P4 at P1,731 on Friday.