Senate President Win Gatchalian advocated on Sunday, June 28, for the immediate passage of a bill banning children aged 16 and below from social media, framing it as a critical response to the recent tragic school shooting in Tacloban.
While acknowledging that Congress should review the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act in light of the tragedy, Gatchalian emphasized that lawmakers ought to focus first on legislation restricting minors from social media and online gaming.
He argued that targeting these platforms is essential to address the surge of mental health struggles and violent tendencies among younger generations.
“Lowering the minimum age of criminal liability should be debated and the Senate is open to that when we resume,” Gatchalian said in an radio interview.
“But when it comes to the bill prohibiting social media use for 16 years old and below, that for me is the priority. It’s one of the priority bills that I submitted,” said Gatchalian, who filed Senate Bill No. 2066 or the proposed Social Media Safety for Children Act.
“Because the biggest question here today is what influences children these days to commit this violence? Because children are not violent. There are influences that happen. That’s why they become like this in their thinking,” he pointed out.
The lawmaker clarified that his legislative proposal, Senate Bill No. 2066, would also extend to violent online gaming applications like Roblox and Gorebox. The measure seeks to enforce strict age-verification protocols and limit digital spaces designed to foster addictive habits among young users.
“Their parental controls should be strict and their identification validation should be strict. So, not just because you provide an email, you can open an account. There should really be facial recognition or age verification,” he said,
“Second, our CICC, the Cyber Crime Intelligence Agency, should be stricter and faster in their blocking. For example, if they detect children who have social media or are doing something to get into social media, the government itself will block these accounts,” the senator added.