A measure seeking to prohibit children aged 12 and below from using social media has been filed in the House of Representatives, while imposing penalties of up to P50 million on platforms that fail to implement adequate child safety measures.
House Speaker Faustino Dy III and House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos filed House Bill No. 9965, or the Children’s Social Media Safety Act, eight days after the school shooting in Tacloban City involving two minor suspects aged 14 and 15 that left three children dead and 20 others injured.
According to the bill’s explanatory note, the measure aims to protect children from online risks by establishing the country’s first comprehensive regulatory framework governing minors’ access to social media.
The proposal would prohibit children below 13 years old from creating or using social media accounts, citing their heightened vulnerability and limited capacity to navigate digital threats.
For minors aged 13 to below 17, social media access would only be allowed with verifiable parental or guardian consent and active, continuous supervision.
The bill also requires social media companies to implement reliable age verification systems, immediately disable prohibited accounts once detected, and prevent children from repeatedly creating new accounts to bypass restrictions.
In addition, platforms would be required to provide parents and guardians with tools to monitor their children’s online activity, manage privacy settings, impose screen time limits, and withdraw consent at any time.
The proposed measure also mandates platforms to apply the highest privacy and safety settings by default for child users, restrict geolocation sharing and financial transactions involving minors, prevent automatic redirection to potentially harmful external websites, and limit the collection of children’s biometric and other sensitive personal information in accordance with the Data Privacy Act of 2012.
Under the bill, social media platforms that fail to comply with requests involving prohibited accounts could face fines ranging from P5 million to P10 million, while violations of broader child safety and enforcement requirements may result in penalties of P20 million to P50 million.
For repeated and serious violations, online platforms may also face temporary restrictions or be prohibited from operating in the Philippines, subject to due process.
