AMID growing concerns over cyberbullying, online sexual exploitation and other online risks, Senator Robin Padilla filed a legislative proposal seeking to ban kids aged 16 and below from creating and maintaining social media accounts.
In filing Senate Bill 2424 (Child Online Safety and Protection Act), Padilla cited the urgent need to regulate the use of social media.
Under SB 2424, the senator, who previously filed a bill seeking to lower criminal liability, cited the urgent need to regulate children’s access to social media platforms, impose obligations on these platforms and third-party age assurance providers, and penalties for violations of policies.
Citing data from international organizations and studies embarking on children’s exposure to social media, Padilla said more than one-third of young people from 30 other countries had experienced cyberbullying, while one in five reportedly missed school.
The senator also cited national data showing that nearly half of children aged 13 to 17 had experienced cyberbullying.
He then presented a UNICEF U-Report survey conducted in April 2025 involving more than 1,200 young Filipinos, 85 percent of which reportedly encountered unsafe online content or behavior, with more than half saying these experiences were recurring.
Padilla also raised concerns over online sexual exploitation and abuse, adding that social media exposes children to harmful contents.
Under the proposed measure, children must be at least 16 years old to create a social media account.
Social media platforms would be required to implement an age assurance system to determine whether users meet the minimum age.
Padilla said this could include self-declaration, age estimation, verification using official documents or third party, and assessment of a user’s account behavior.
He explained that age assurance would not necessarily require users to submit identification documents.
The bill however does not cover access to online education, as certified by the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
He added that email, private messaging applications and other services that are not social networking platforms would also be excluded.
Padilla claimed that his bill had already secured the signatures of at least 18 senators.
