Santa Rosa, Laguna Representative Dan Fernandez pushed for disallowing a certain age group from using social media.
In a bill filed by Fernandez, minors would be barred from using social media to prevent them from being exposed to harmful content.
In the proposed Social Media Regulation and Protection Act (House Bill 543), social media companies would be required to restrict internet users under 13 years old.
Social media platforms would also be prohibited from collecting data from children 13 and below without parental consent and without user consent for 13 to 17-year-olds.
Companies are also required to automatically limit the usage of their platforms to 30 minutes a day. Netizens may change their time limit, but they must do it weekly.
“Users would be able to change the limits, but they would have to do so every week,” according to the bill filed by Fernandez.
Fernandez believed that the bill would protect the younger Filipinos from being taken advantage of by social media companies that were known for collecting data.
“With the advent and creation of social media, children and adolescents’ every move is monitored online, and even the youngest are bombarded with advertising when they go online to do their homework, talk with friends, and play,” he said.
“This demonstrates that in the digital age of the internet, social media corporations create a global footprint that easily influences our modern conceptions of choice, leisure, and reality,” he added.
The bill was filed in 2022 but was still not being passed into the law.
It became a discussion again after Australia pushed to ban minors from using social media platforms.