REPRESS

CaN
Republic of the Philippines fx E-Filed “yy
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES [RECEIVED
Quezon City {E _ DATE september 18,2024 [7
3 TIME 11:55 am
NINETEENTH CONGRESS -
Third Regular Session il 9g
HOUSE BILL No.10938 Wo INDES?

Introduced by Representative CAMILLE A. VILLAR

AN ACT PROVIDING PROTECTION FOR CHILDREN USING THE INTERNET

Explanatory Note

‘The 1987 Constitution provides that the State recognizes the vital role of the
youth in nation-building and shall promote and protect their physical, moral,
spiritual, intellectual, and social well-being, It shall inculcate in the youth patriotism
and nationalism, and encourage their involvement in public and civic affairs.’
Further, the 1987 Constitution mandates the State to also defend the right of children
to assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all
forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to
their development?

‘The children and the youth are the most vulnerable sectors of our society. In
order for them to attain their role in building our nation, they need special protection
against the deleterious effects of the internet, social media and all forms of
information and communications technology.

This bill aims to complement and expand on the provisions of Republic Act
No. 11930, also known as the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children
and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials (CSAEM) Act, which lapsed
into law on July 30, 2022. It will put in place mechanisms to create a safe and age-
appropriate online environment for children, to identify, prevent and mitigate the
adverse impacts of information and communications technology, to promote
enjoyable digital environment for children, to prohibit social media accounts for

1 Article I, Section 13, 1987 Philippine Constitution
2 Article XV, Section 3, paragraph (2), 1987 Philippine Constitution



children below fourteen (14) years of age, and to protect children's privacy, among
others.

In view thereof, this Representation joins her colleagues in humbly calling for
the swift passage of this bill.

Wille,

CAMILLE A. VILLAR


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

NINETEENTH CONGRESS
Third Regular Se

ion.

HOUSE BILL No.10938

Introduced by Representative CAMILLE A. VILLAR

AN ACT PROVIDING PROTECTION FOR CHILDREN USING THE INTERNET

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress
assembled:

Section 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Child Online Protection.
Act."

Sec. 2. Declaration of Policy. - Consistent with the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the
State recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building and shall promote and
protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and social well-being. It shall
inculcate in the youth patriotism and nationalism, and encourage their involvement
in public and civic affairs. Further, it is also the policy of the State to provide special
protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation, and other
conditions prejudicial to their development.

The best interests of children shall be the paramount consideration in all
actions concerning them, whether undertaken by public or private institutions.
Every effort shall be exerted to promote the welfare of children and enhance their
opportunities for a useful and happy life. The State shall vigorously promote online
protection for children by securing their interactions in the internet.

Sec. 3. Definition of Terms. ~
(a)"Application developer" or "app developer" refers to a professional
responsible for designing and coding functional software programs and
applications;
(b) "Child" refers to person below eighteen (18) years of age or those over but


are unable to fully take care of themselves or protect themselves from abuse,
neglect, cruelty, exploitation or discrimination because of physical or mental
disability or condition;

() "Content provider" refers to an entity that supplies material such as text,
music, or images for use on websites;

(d)"Internet service provider" refers to a public telecommunication entity
(PTE) or value-added service provider duly authorized by or registered with
the National Telecommunications Commission that provides users or other
entities with data connection allowing access to the internet through
physical transport infrastructure, and such access is necessary for internet
users to access content and services on the internet, and for content
providers to publish or distribute materials online;

(e) "Mobile service provider" refers to a PTE or virtual network operator, or an
entity that provides mobile telecommunications service to subscribers;

( "Notice and takedown‘ refers to a procedure or process for the swift removal
of illegal content;

(g) "Online retailer" refers to a business that sells goods over the internet and
transports goods by mail or parcel delivery;

(h) "Social media" refers to a digital technology that allows the sharing of ideas
and information, including text and visuals, through virtual networks and
communities;

(i) "Social media platform’ refers to an online forum, website, or application that
satisfies each of the following criteria:

(a) Allows users to upload content or view the content or activity of other
users;

(b) Ten (10%) percent or more of the daily active users who are younger
than 16 years of age spend on average 2 hours per day or longer on the
online forum, website, or application on the days when using the online
forum, website, or application during the previous 12 months or, if the
online forum, website, or application did not exist during the previous
12 months, during the previous month;

(c) Employs algorithms that analyze user data or information on users to
select content for users; and

(d) Has any of the following addictive features:

(1) Infinite scrolling, which means either:
(i) Continuously loading content, or content that loads as
the user scrolls down the page without the need to open a
separate page; or
(ji) Seamless content, or the use of pages with no visible or



apparent end or page breaks.

(2) Push notifications or alerts sent by the online forum, website, or
application to inform a user about specific activities or events related
to the user's account.

(3) Displays personal interactive metrics that indicate the number of times
other users have clicked a button to indicate their reaction to content
or have shared or reposted the content.

(4) Auto-play video or video that begins to play without the user first
clicking on the video or ona play button for that video.

(6) Live-streaming or a function that allows a user or advertiser to
broadcast live video content in real-time.

(e) "User-generated content" refers to any form of visual media that is
created by users of an online system, and made accessible via social
media.

Sec. 4. Creating a Safe and Age-Appropriate Online Environment for Children. - In pursuit
of creating a safe and age-appropriate digital environment for children of diverse
ages, mobile service providers, internet service providers, content providers, online
retailers, app developers, and user-generated content, interactive and social media
providers shall:

(a) Develop a child protection or safeguarding policy to identify, prevent,
and mitigate the adverse impacts of information communication
technology on children;

(b) Integrate due diligence on child online protection issues into risk
assessment frameworks at the organizational and product or technology
evels to identify adverse impacts on children that are directly linked to
their operations, products or services;

(c) Establish operational-level grievance and reporting mechanism for any
child's rights violations such as inappropriate content or contact and
breach of privacy;

(d) Use customer terms and conditions and/or acceptable use policies to
explicitly state the company's position on the misuse of its services and
the consequences of any abuse;

(e) Develop notice and take down (NTD) and reporting processes that allow
users to report inappropriate content or contact on the specific
profile/location where it was observed;

(f) Employ appropriate technical measures to prevent underage access and
exposure to inappropriate content or services such as parental control
tools, age-differentiated experiences with password-protected content,
block/allow lists, purchase/time controls, opt-out functions, filtering



and moderating;

(g) Ensure that content and services that are not age-appropriate for all
users are marked with prominent display options to control access or
offered together with age verification, if possible;

(h) Adapt and implement heightened default privacy settings for collection,
processing, storage, sale and publishing of personal data, including
location-related information and browsing habits gathered from
children;

(i) Offer clear reporting tools and develop processes to act on reports of
inappropriate content, contact and misuse and provide detailed feedback
to service users on the reporting process; and

() Monitor where, when, and how children may encounter potentially
harmful advertising messages intended for another market segment.

Sec. 5. Identification, Prevention and Mitigation of the Adverse Impacts of ICT. - Internet
service providers shall identify, prevent and mitigate the adverse impacts of
information and communications technologies on children's rights and identify
opportunities to support the advancement of children's rights:

Towards this end, all ISPs shall:

(a) Identify customers! age where appropriate and implement a suitable solution
to individual services;

(b) Provide mechanisms such as parental control software and tools that enable
parents to manage their children's access to internet resources in the form of
white lists, content filters, usage monitoring, contact management, or
time/ program limits;

(©) Within the service itself, at the point of uploading content, include reminders
about such topics as the type of content that is considered to be
inappropriate; and

(d) Provide children with information on safer internet use on the landing page.

Sec. 6. Promoting Enjoyable Digital Environment for Children. - User-generated-
content, interactive and social media service providers shall create a safer, more
enjoyable digital environment for children of diverse ages by taking the following
actions:

(a) Communicate in customer-friendly language within the terms of service and
user guidelines a clear set of house rules that define (i) the nature of the
service and what is expected of its users, (ii) what is and is not acceptable in
terms of harmful content or behaviors, (iii) language as well as prohibiting
illegal usage; and (iv) consequences of any breach;

(b) Enforce minimum age requirements and take steps to identify and remove


ne ae

underage users who have misrepresented their age to gain access;

(©) Protect younger users from uninvited communication and ensure that privacy
and information-collection guidelines are in place;

(d) Review hosted images and videos and delete the inappropriate ones when
found; and

(c) Ensure that secure passwords are used as a step towards protecting children
in gaming and other social media settings and develop tools that actively seek
to remove content that is illegal or in breach of the terms of condition and
service as well as tools to prevent uploading of known illegal content to the
site.

Sec. 7. Electronic Identification Requirement. - Social media providers and other similar
online platforms shall require online users to submit a valid proof of identification
prior to registration for their services.

For Philippine-based users, government-issued identification cards shall be
sufficient proof of identification for purposes of this Act.

Existing members shall be required to submit a valid identification card as a
condition for continuing membership on their platform.

SEC. 8. Prohibiting Social Media Accounts for Children Below Fourteen (14) Years of
Age. - A social media platform shall prohibit a child who is younger than
fourteen (14) years of age from entering into a contract with a social media
platform to become an account holder.

In furtherance of this prohibition, a social media platform shall terminate any
account held by an account holder younger than 14 years of age, including accounts
that the social media platform treats or categorizes as belonging to an account holder
who is likely younger than 14 years of age for purposes of targeting content or
advertising, and provide ninety (90) days for an account holder to dispute such
termination. Termination shall be effective upon the expiration of the 90 days if the
account holder fails to effectively dispute the termination.

A social media platform shall prohibit children aged fourteen (14) years but less
than eighteen (17) years of age from entering into a contract with a social media
platform to become an account holder, unless the child's parent or guardian
provides consent for such child to become an account holder.

SEC. 9. Protection of Children's Privacy. - Mobile network operators are hereby


te: oe one

prohibited from collecting, using or disclosing personal information from children in
a manner that violates the provisions of this Act. An operator of such website or
online service or the operator's agent shall not be held liable for any disclosure made
in good faith and following reasonable procedures in responding to a request for
disclosure of personal information to the parent of a child as provided under this
Act.

SEC. 10. Collection of Personal Information from Children. - The collection of personal
data from children by any website or online service directed to children may be
allowed provided that the following requirements are complied with:

(a) The operator provides notice on the website or online service of what
information is collected from children, how the operator uses such
information, and the operator's disclosure practices for such information; and

(b) The operator obtains verifiable parental consent for the collection, use or
disclosure of personal information from children.

SEC. 11. When Consent is Not Required. - Verifiable parental consent shall not be
required under the following circumstances:

(a) Online contact information collected from a child that is used only to respond
directly on a one-time basis to a specific request from the child and is not
used to recontact the child and is not maintained in retrievable form from the
operator;

(b) A request for the name or online contact information of a parent or child that
is used for the sole purpose of obtaining parental consent or providing notice
under this Section and where such information is not maintained in
retrievable form by the operator if parental consent is not obtained after a
reasonable time;

(c) Online contact information collected from a child that is used only to respond
more than once directly to a specific request from the child and is not used to
recontact the child beyond the scope of that request:

(i) If, before any additional response after the initial response to the child,
the operator uses reasonable efforts to provide a parent notice of the
online contact information collected from the child, the purposes for
which it is to be used, and an opportunity for the parent to request that
the operator make no further use of the information and that it is not
be maintained in retrievable form; or

(ii) without notice to the parent in such circumstance as the Department of
Information and Communication and Technology (DICT) may


determine are appropriate, taking into consideration the benefits to the
child of access to information and services, and risks to the security
and privacy of the child, in rules and regulations promulgated for the
effective implementation of this Act.

(4) The name of the child and online contact information, to the extent
reasonably necessary to protect the safety of a child participant on the site,
is:

()) Used only for the purpose of protecting such safety;
(ii) not used to recontact the child or for any other purpose; and
(jiinot disclosed on the site.

If the operator uses reasonable efforts to provide a parent notice of the name
and online contact information collected from the child, the purposes for
which it is to be used, and an opportunity for the parent to request that the
operator make no further use of the information and that it not be
maintained in retrievable form; or

(e) The collection, use or dissemination of such information by the operator of
such website or online service is absolutely necessary:
(i) to protect the security or integrity of its website;
(ii) to take precaution against liability;
(iii)to respond to judicial process; or
(iv)to provide information to law enforcement agencies or for an
investigation on a matter related to public safety.

SEC. 12. Role of the Department of Information and Communications Technology. - The
DICT shall be the primary agency tasked with the protection of children using the
internet and the implementation of this Act.

SEC. 13. Public Awareness Programs - The DICT shall, in consultation with the
Philippine Information Agency and other relevant agencies of government, private
sector, and civil society organizations, develop, lead, undertake and coordinate a
nationwide program to heighten public awareness and involvement in
furtherance of the purposes of this Act. The program shall utilize existing resources
and efforts of the national government, local governments, private organizations,
and non-government organizations and shalll include:

{a) Identifying, promoting, and encouraging best practices for internet safety;
(b) Establishing and carrying out a national outreach and internet safety
education campaign regarding internet safety utilizing various media and


internet-based resources;

(©) Facilitating access to, and the exchange of, information regarding internet
safety to promote up-to-date knowledge regarding internet safety; and

(d) Facilitating access to internet safety education and public awareness efforts of
the government, nonprofit organizations, and other appropriate entities.

SEC. 14. Digital Citizenship Literacy Program. - The promotion of digital citizenship
literacy program shall be inculcated in all levels of education nationwide. Consistent
with Section 5 of Republic Act No. 10533, or the "Enhanced Basic Education Act of
2013", the Department of Education (DepEd) shall ensure that the K to 12 curriculum
shall be supported by programs on digital literacy.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and
Skills Development Authority (TESDA) shall ensure the promotion of programs on
digital citizenship literacy.

SEC. 15. Online Safety Coordinators. - There shall be appointed an Online Safety
Coordinator (OSC) in all primary and secondary schools. They shall ensure the
protection of all students from potential harms that may occur through the internet
and electronic media and serve as the main contact persons on all online-related
issues. OSCs shall act as auditor of online safety measures, including the collection
and recording of online safety incidents.

SEC. 16. Penalties. - Violations of this Act shall be penalized by imprisonment
ranging from one (1) year to three (3) years or a fine of not less than Five Hundred
Thousand Pesos (PhP500,000.00) but not more than Two Million Pesos
(PhP2,000,000.00) or both, at the discretion of the court.

SEC. 17. Appropriations. - The amount necessary to carry out the provisions of this
Act is hereby authorized to be appropriated in the General Appropriations Act of the
year following its enactment into law and thereafter.

Sec. 18. Separability Clause. - If any provision of this Act is held invalid or
unconstitutional, the remaining parts or provisions not affected shall remain in full
force and effect.

Sec. 19. Repealing Clause. - All laws, decrees, executive orders, rules and regulations,
issuances, or parts thereof inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed or amended
accordingly.



Sec. 20. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in
the Official Gazette or a newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,