Is it time to regulate social media?

For years, we treated social media as private space. Somewhere to post photos, talk to friends, watch videos, build businesses and follow the news. But that understanding is no longer enough. When millions of Filipinos use the same digital platforms every day, what happens there can affect families, schools, businesses, communities and even public safety.

The recent action of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) against Reddit and Discord brought that reality into sharper focus. The CICC directed the platforms to designate resident agents or local representatives in the Philippines, among other measures intended to improve coordination with Philippine authorities on online safety, rapid response and age assurance. For me, the bigger question is not whether social media should exist. It is whether platforms serving Filipinos should also have meaningful accountability to the Filipino public. This is where the proposed legislation on social media regulation comes into play.

I was just at “LegisHear” in Negros Occidental. For those who aren’t familiar, LegisHear is our way of bringing Congress to the people. We share legislation, consult and discuss important topics outside of Batasan. I was asked to talk about our current legislative proposals on social media safety and regulation.

House Substitute Bill 11566, or the proposed Children’s Social Media Safety Act, takes an age-based approach. It does not impose a blanket ban on social media for every minor. Instead, it prohibits children below 13 from creating, maintaining or using social media accounts, while allowing those aged 13 to below 18 to access social media with verifiable parental or guardian consent and continuing supervision. That distinction matters. The purpose is not to tell Filipino families that children can never use technology. Social media can help young people learn, communicate, create and participate in communities. The purpose is to recognize that younger users need stronger safeguards and greater adult guidance. The bill, therefore, goes beyond age verification. Platforms would have to periodically verify age and parental consent, provide parents with tools to monitor online activity and interactions, manage privacy settings, set screen time limits and withdraw consent. Child accounts would also receive the highest privacy and safety settings by default.

These protections respond to risks that parents already encounter. A child should not be pished toward explicit material simply because an algorithm finds it engaging. A stranger should not be able to send unsolicited messages to a child without meaningful safeguards. A child should not be directed into unsafe interactions, exposed unnecessarily to harmful content or encouraged toward risky financial transactions.

The proposed framework also addresses the platforms themselves. Algorithms would be required to avoid promoting harmful content and to detect and limit children’s exposure to material that may endanger them. The bill also calls for safeguards against manipulative platform designs, greater transparency regarding recommendation systems and meaningful human oversight of algorithmic decisions affecting children.

HB 11566 proposes substantial administrative penalties for platforms that repeatedly fail to comply, including fines that can reach P50 million and, for repeated and serious violations, temporary restrictions or prohibition from operating in the Philippines, subject to due process. That gives the rules teeth while recognizing that government action must still follow established legal procedures.

Another bill which I didn’t have time to discuss at LegisHear is House Bill 4786, the proposed Social Media Platform Franchise Act, directly addressing the problem of local accountability. Section 4-A would classify covered social media platforms operating substantially in the Philippines or serving Filipino users as regulated public services of significant public consequence and require them to secure a congressional franchise. More importantly, Section 5 requires covered platforms to establish a registered legal entity or branch office in the Philippines, designate an official local representative for regulatory and legal compliance and maintain a functional grievance redress system for Filipino users.

If a platform has a significant presence in our country, Filipino users should know where accountability resides. Government agencies should have a clear counterpart when there is a serious safety concern, a parent needs assistance or a lawful request requires an urgent response. But local presence is only one part of the solution. We also need rules that recognize that children do not face the same online risks as adults.

There is also another concern that deserves equal attention. Scams. Online safety is not limited to what children see. Filipino parents, adults and children are all exposed to fraudulent investment offers, impersonation, phishing, fake online stores and other forms of deception. Platform accountability should therefore include reasonable systems for detecting and addressing fraudulent activity, responding to reports and preventing bad actors from repeatedly exploiting users.

At the same time, regulation must not become an excuse for excessive surveillance. Age verification should be proportionate and privacy-conscious. The personal information collected to establish age or parental consent must be protected and used only for legitimate purposes.

Ultimately, safer social media will not come from one agency, one platform or one law. It will require cooperation among government, technology companies, parents, schools and users. As legislators, our responsibility is to set reasonable rules for a digital environment that did not exist when many of our existing laws were written. As parents, families need tools, not just warnings. And as platforms, companies serving millions of Filipinos should accept that access to our market comes with responsibilities to our people.

We are not trying to shut children out of the digital world. We are trying to make sure that when Filipino children enter it, they are not entering alone, unprotected and without recourse. Social media is here to stay. The question before us is whether we will allow the risks to grow faster than our safeguards.