Laguna 1st District Rep. Dan Fernandez pushes for the repassage of the bill which regulates minors’ use of social media.

Last July 30, he refiled House Bill 543 or the Social Media Regulation and Protection Act of 2019 which seeks to supervise and regulate the flow of information on all types of media platforms.

“Ang ninanais sana natin ay yung 13 years old and below, yung kanilang content na napapanuod nila o kaya ay nakukuha nila, dapat meron tayo yung tinatawag na template lamang. Hanggang dito lamang ang content na pwede mong mapanuod at makuha dito sa mga social media platforms. Kung baga, hindi mo pwedeng kunin lahat. Magkakaroon tayo ng regulation,” he explained on Wednesday, Aug. 3 during DZRH’s Dos Por Dos.

He explained that internet addiction, which causes children and even adults to be unable to control their use of social media, is one of the negative impacts of prolonged internet use.

The addiction will affect the “cognitive development” or “intellectual performance” of minors, Fernandez said.

He added that prolonged use of social media also affects children’s ability to discern right and wrong due to the overload of information they read online.

The Congressman said the passage of the bill will create policies through the help of various government agencies.

“Magkaroon tayo ng polisiya sa tulong ng ating DICT [Department of Information and Communications], Department of Health (DOH), at National Privacy Commission (NPC) kung saan ang mga bata, in relation to mga kinukuha nilang aralin, ay may consent ng kanilang magulang at kanilang paaralan. ‘Nang sa ganon, yung pumapasok na impormasyon nila ay na co-control,” he explained.

For users aged 13 to 17 years old, Fernandez proposed to advance the information they will consume.

“Pwede naman nating i-advance yung kanilang impormasyon na pumapasok sa kanilang mga utak. Bibigyan po natin sila ng template na maari lamang magamit nila. Hindi lahat ng nakikita natin sa internet, hindi lahat ng nae-explore natin, eh papayagan natin makapasok sa kanilang kaisipan dahil ito nga ang nagbubunga ng negative effect,” he asserted.

The Congressman also shared that they also coordinated before with internet and social media companies to help control the flow of information that children consume online.

Under the proposed bill, the following are the compulsory actions for social media companies: provide age restrictions and limitations on social media platforms use; provide adequate and efficient notification mechanism on declared parents of the children; strengthen features restricting users under 13 years old; prohibit to collect information from users under 13 years of age and users aged 13 to 17 years old without parental consent; require “natural stopping points” for users which will end scrolling after a certain amount of content; make it easier to track user’s amount of time on their platforms, and limit the time that minors' spent on a platform to 30 minutes.