Philippine House approves children's online safety bill on second reading

Lawmakers in the Philippines have thrown their weight behind a bill that would reshape how digital platforms treat young users, after the House of Representatives approved the measure on second reading on 6 October.

House Bill No. 11566, known as the proposed Children's Digital Safety, Protection, and Well-Being Act, would impose age restrictions on online services, set child safety standards and make companies answerable for the protection of minors on their platforms. Three members of the Tingog Party-list, Representatives Yedda Marie Romualdez, Andrew Julian Romualdez and Jude Acidre, are among the authors.

For families in the Philippines and beyond, the bill is part of a wider shift by governments towards treating children's safety online as a duty of the platforms themselves rather than of parents alone.

What the bill would require

Under the proposal, children below 13 would be barred from creating or using accounts on covered digital platforms. Those aged 13 to below 18 could use the services only with parental consent and under safeguards the bill prescribes.

The measure would also restrict what it identifies as harmful features and practices: certain content, targeted advertising, unsafe interactions, livestreaming, endless scrolling, behavioural profiling and the collection or sharing of children's personal information beyond what is needed.

Platforms would have to build age verification systems that preserve privacy, and recheck users' ages at least twice a year. A simple declaration of a birth date would not satisfy the proposed standard.

The bill reaches beyond social media into gaming. It covers the social and interactive side of online games, including chat, content sharing and livestreaming, while leaving core gameplay and game mechanics outside its scope.

Enforcement and support for parents

A new Office for Children's Social Media and Digital Safety would be created within the Department of Information and Communications Technology to oversee how the rules are carried out. The bill also proposes educational programmes to help parents and caregivers guide children towards responsible digital habits.

Acidre, speaking about the measure, said online spaces have become woven into how children learn, keep in touch and develop socially, while also carrying risks they may not be ready to face. "Internet and social media can no longer be separated from our children's lives," he said, adding that the same spaces "can expose them to exploitation, harmful content and experiences they may not yet be equipped to handle."

He argued that responsibility should not fall on families by themselves. "Child safety should already be built into these platforms, not something families have to figure out on their own," he said.

Acidre framed the bill as a way to keep the benefits of technology while limiting its dangers. "We do not want to keep children away from technology," he said, describing the aim as letting children learn, explore and connect "without being unnecessarily exposed to harm."

The wider picture for regulators and families

The Philippines is not acting in a vacuum. In the United Kingdom, the Online Safety Act 2023 places duties on services children are likely to use: under the government's own explainer, they must prevent children from seeing the most harmful content, including pornography and material encouraging self-harm or suicide, must manage other harmful material in a way suited to a child's age, and must assess the risks to children. Ofcom is the regulator responsible.

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office enforces the Children's code, which sets fifteen standards, among them putting a child's best interests first, checking users' ages, being transparent about how data is handled and using privacy-friendly default settings.

In the European Union, the European Commission issued preliminary findings against TikTok on 24 July 2026, stating that accounts belonging to under-18s fall short of Digital Services Act safety requirements, in part because teenagers aged 16 and 17 could make their accounts public, allowing their content to be recommended to anyone on the platform. The Act imposes stricter obligations on platforms with more than 45 million monthly users in the EU, including duties to identify and reduce risks such as harm to children, to offer a feed that does not rely on profiling and to avoid deceptive design.

The Philippine bill still needs to pass further stages in the House before it can become law, and its approval on second reading is not the final word on its contents.

Families who want to know more can read about how a social media harm claim works, the court cases we report, the case against the platforms, the latest developments and checking whether you are eligible to claim.