Fines up to P50M urged on socmed platforms sans child safeguards

MANILA, Philippines – House Bill No. 9965, or the proposed Children’s Social Media Safety Act, seeks to impose fines of up to P50 million on social media platforms that fail to comply with mandatory child online safety standards, including age verification, parental controls, and safeguards against harmful content.

The bill, filed by House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” G. Dy III and Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, also authorizes the temporary restriction of access to social media platforms in the Philippines — or even their prohibition from operating in cases of repeated and serious violations, subject to due process.

The bill — aiming to be the country’s first comprehensive regulatory framework governing children’s access to and use of social media platforms — will promote responsible, age-appropriate digital engagement through stronger safeguards, greater platform accountability, enhanced parental supervision, and digital literacy.

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Constitutioinal duty to protect children

According to the bill’s explanatory note, the proposal is anchored in the state’s constitutional duty to protect the rights and welfare of children.

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“In the digital age, this duty extends to ensuring that children are protected from risks arising from the use of social media and other digital platforms. At its core, this bill recognizes that every child deserves a safe environment to grow, learn, and develop free from harm both in the physical and digital world,” the explanatory note states.

The explanatory note cites studies linking excessive social media use among children to increased anxiety and depression, low self-esteem, sleep disruption, cyberbullying, exposure to harmful content, and compulsive use driven by platform design.

It also warns that children are increasingly exposed to misleading and artificially generated content that can distort reality and adversely affect their development.

Comprehensive framedwork

Existing laws, the explanatory note points out, do not provide a comprehensive framework governing the responsibilities of social media platforms in protecting children online despite the growing influence of algorithms and digital systems on what young users see and consume.

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“This bill seeks to address these gaps by establishing safety standards and regulatory measures governing children’s access to and use of social media. It adopts a clear age-based regulatory framework by imposing an absolute prohibition on the use of social media by children below thirteen (13) years of age, recognizing their heightened vulnerability and limited capacity to navigate digital risks,” it adds.

Following are some of the provisions of the bill:

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Children under 13 years old will be prohibited from creating, maintaining, or using social media accounts.

Social media platforms will need to implement age verification systems, immediately disable prohibited accounts, and adopt safeguards to prevent children from repeatedly creating new accounts to evade the prohibition.

Children aged 13 but below 18 will only be allowed to use social media access if they have verifiable parental or guardian consent and active, continuous supervision.

Platforms would also be required to periodically re-verify users’ age and parental consent, while automatically restricting or suspending access once such consent is withdrawn.

Social media companies will provide parents and guardians with tools to supervise their children’s accounts, monitor online activity and interactions, access privacy settings, set screen time limits and breaks, and withdraw consent whenever necessary.

Platforms will apply the highest privacy and safety settings by default for child users, restrict geolocation sharing and financial transactions by minors, prevent automatic redirection to potentially harmful external websites, and prohibit the unnecessary collection or use of children’s biometric and sensitive personal data, in accordance with the Data Privacy Act of 2012.

HB 9965 also seeks to regulate the following:

Platforms will be prohibited from using algorithms promoting harmful content and should detect and limit children’s exposure to such material.

Platforms should avoid manipulative platform designs that may harm children’s development.

Platforms should remove artificially generated or altered content that falsely depicts real events, persons, or statements or is reasonably likely to mislead or deceive users.

Platforms must disclose how their algorithms determine or influence the content shown to users.

Platforms must subject algorithmic decisions affecting children to meaningful human oversight.

Platforms must regularly submit transparency reports to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

Stiff fines

The measure also directs the DICT, in coordination with the Department of Education, to integrate digital literacy and ethical social media use into the K to 12 curriculum. It likewise mandates regular training for teachers and awareness programs for parents and children to promote responsible online behavior and digital well-being.

The bill imposes administrative fines on social media platforms that fail to comply with their obligations under the law:

Platforms that fail to act on requests involving prohibited accounts may be fined between P5 million and P10 million.

Violations of the law’s platform obligations and enforcement requirements carry stiffer penalties of P20 million to P50 million.

In cases of repeated and serious violations, platforms may face temporary restriction of access within the Philippines or be prohibited from operating in the country, subject to due process.

The bill also mandates local government units, through their Local Councils for the Protection of Children, to do the following:

establish age-appropriate community-based recreational programs

maintain device-free community spaces

organize sports, arts, and civic activities that encourage children to spend more time offline

The explanatory note emphasizes that the bill seeks to create “a safer digital environment for children while upholding their rights to access information, privacy, and freedom of expression.”

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“More importantly, it affirms the State’s responsibility to place the best interests of the child at the center of digital governance and to ensure that technology serves, rather than harms, their development,” the note says. /atm