Senator files bill for social media ban on minors

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian has filed a bill seeking to ban children below 16 years old from having social media accounts.

In Senate Bill 2066 (proposed Social Media Safety for Children Act), Gatchalian seeks to prohibit children below 16 years from registering, accessing or maintaining an account on any social media platform.

The proposed ban follows the lead of other countries in protecting children from pedophiles lurking on social media.

Gatchalian cited the examples of Australia and Indonesia in restricting the children’s social media access.

While there are laws that criminalizes online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, Gatchalian said “these statutes are primarily penal and reactive in nature and do not establish a comprehensive regulatory framework governing minors’ access to and exposure on social media platforms.”

This condition “necessitates this measure to institute preventive safeguards and strengthen the protection of children’s physical, mental, moral and social well-being in the digital environment,” he added.

Gatchalian said the bill would require social media platform providers to adopt age and identity verification systems, conduct regular audits to deactivate accounts of age-restricted users and establish reporting and response mechanisms for underage access.

“It is time for us to protect our children from the harmful effects of social media. Let us not wait for the problem to get worse before we act,” Gatchalian said in Filipino.