LEGARDA PUSHES 16 AS MINIMUM AGE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA USERS

CHILDREN’S exposure to cyberbullying, misinformation, harmful content, and compulsive use patterns on social media platforms continues to raise concerns over their safety and well-being in digital spaces.

To address this, Sen. Loren Legarda has filed Senate Bill No. 1955, or the “Children’s Safety in Social Media Act,” which seeks to establish a minimum age of 16 for account ownership on covered age-restricted social media platforms and impose obligations on platform providers to enforce the restriction.

“Social media has transformed how Filipinos learn, communicate, and participate in public life. It can inform and inspire  but it can also mislead, overwhelm, and harm,” she said.

The measure places primary responsibility on social media platform providers to take reasonable, proportionate, and privacy-preserving steps to prevent underage users from creating and maintaining accounts, instead of burdening children, parents, or schools.

“Our children deserve that same protection now, in spaces where algorithms shape what they see, what they believe, and  how they behave,” she added.

The bill also provides safeguards to ensure that freedom of expression is protected, emphasizing that regulation must remain lawful, necessary, and proportionate.

“While freedom of expression remains a cornerstone of our democratic life, it must be exercised within the bounds of law and with due regard for the rights of others,” she said.

It further requires age assurance safeguards to comply with the Data Privacy Act of 2012, ensuring data minimization and prohibiting the mandatory use of government-issued identification as the sole verification method.

“Protecting children online requires enforceable duties for platforms and a framework that remains consistent with constitutional freedoms,” Legarda said.

The measure also promotes digital citizenship and media-and-information literacy programs in schools, practical parental guidance tools and clear options on platforms, and a formal Inter-Agency Council led by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) with the National Privacy Commission (NPC), National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and Department of Justice (DOJ) to address the multi-dimensional nature of online harms.

“It takes a village to raise a child, and it likewise takes a whole-of-society framework to protect children in digital spaces shaped by rapidly evolving technologies,” she said.

The bill is currently pending in the Committee on Public Information and Mass Media, with secondary referral to the Cmmmittees on Science and Technology and Finance.