Senator Camille Villar has reiterated her call for the immediate passage of the proposed Safe Online Spaces Act, emphasizing the urgent need to shield young Filipinos from rising threats both in physical classrooms and digital environments.
Under Senate Bill No. 1729, the legislative measure aims to enforce responsible social media and gaming use, mandate system warnings for hazardous online spaces, and implement mandatory parental awareness programs regarding the risks of unrestricted digital access.
Villar emphasized that child protection strategies must expand beyond school premises to cover the online spaces that influence youth behavior.
“Our children should never have to enter their classrooms wondering whether they will come home safely. Schools must remain places of learning, not places of fear. But we must also recognize that the environment influencing our children no longer ends at the school gate—it follows them through their phones and into the digital spaces they enter every day,” Villar said.
Her call follows a series of violent incidents involving minors, including an August 18 shooting at Ateneo de Zamboanga University where a student killed a classmate and livestreamed the attack before taking his own life. Other recent tragedies include a Tacloban City school shooting that left three dead and the fatal stabbing of 13-year-old Aaron Miguel Duran Ontong inside a Las Piñas school.
Alongside online regulations, Villar advocates for stricter school security, increased mental health support, early bullying intervention, and tighter controls on firearms access for minors.
She is also a co-author of Senate Bill No. 2424, which seeks to set 16 as the minimum age for creating and maintaining social media accounts, requiring platforms to implement strict age-verification systems.
“As a mother and as a legislator, I will continue pushing for measures that protect our children wherever they are—offline and online. Protecting our children means keeping them safe in the classroom, helping them before anger or distress turns into violence, and making the digital spaces they navigate every day safer as well,” Villar added.