House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III urged the government to fast-track a bill banning children younger than 13 from using social media by including it among the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council’s priority measures.
Dy renewed his push for House Bill No. 9965 as the House opened the second regular session of the 20th Congress. Filed with Majority Leader Sandro Marcos and other lawmakers, the measure would prohibit children younger than 13 from creating, registering, maintaining or using social media accounts.
It would also require platforms to verify users’ ages, immediately disable prohibited accounts and prevent repeated account creation to bypass the restriction.
“To complement these measures and to further protect our youth, I together with Majority Leader Sandro Marcos and the rest of the members filed House Bill Number 9965 or the Children’s Social Media Safety Act, na nagbabawal sa mga menor de edad under 13 years old sa paggamit ng social media. Hiling po natin na maisama din ang panukalang ito sa LEDAC priority bills para maipasa ito sa lalong madaling panahon,” Dy said.
Under the proposal, children ages 13 to 17 could access social media only with verified parental consent and ongoing supervision. Platforms would also be required to regularly verify users’ ages and parental approval, and restrict access once that consent is withdrawn.
The bill would require social media companies to provide parents with tools to manage privacy, screen time and account activity. It would also mandate stronger default privacy settings for minors while limiting geolocation sharing, financial transactions and the collection of biometric and other sensitive data. The proposal also seeks to curb recommendation systems and platform features that expose young users to harmful content or encourage excessive use.
Dy’s measure would make technology companies responsible for enforcing the restrictions. Dy also linked the proposal to the spread of misinformation and toxic online discourse.
House Bill No. 9965 is currently under review by a technical working group of the House Committee on the Welfare of Children.
