FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
First Regular Session 
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S E N A T E  
Senate Bill No. m9 
INTRODUCED BY SEN. MANNY VILLAR 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Everyday hundreds of children access the internet and other interactive 
entertainment products. This poses an actual danger to the children as they are 
inevitably exposed to the harmful material contained therein such as 
pornography and violence. 
In view of this, the attached bill provides the parents the means to protect 
their children from harmful material by allowing the parent, or the legal guardian 
of the minor, to sue any person who knowingly sells or distributes a material 
deemed harmful to minors. Consequently, this bill aims to deter any 
unscrupulous person from engaging in a business of selling or distributing 
products containing harmful material to minors from selling the same to minors. 
Accordingly, the approval of this bill is earnestly sought. 
MANNYVI LAR 
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FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
First Regular Session 
S E N A T E  
Senate Bill No. m9 
INTRODUCED BY SEN. MANNY VILLAR 
AN ACT 
TO PROVIDE A CIVIL ACTION FOR A MINOR INJURED BY EXPOSURE TO AN 
ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCT CONTAINING MATERIAL THAT IS HARMFUL TO 
MINORS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
Philippines in Congress assembled: 
SECTION 1. Title. - This Act shall be known and cited as the "Parents' 
Empowerment Act" 
SECTION 2. Civil Action For A Minor Injured By Exposure To An 
Entertainment Product Containing Material That Is Harmful To Minors. - A minor, 
through a person acting on behalf of the minor may, in a civil action obtain relief 
against any person who knowingly sells or distributes an entertainment product 
containing material that is harmful to minors, if-- 
(1) a reasonable person would expect a substantial number of 
(2) the minor as a result of exposure to that material is likely to 
minors to be exposed to the material; and 
suffer personal or emotional injury or injury to mental or moral welfare. 
SECTION 3. Relief- I f  the minor is the prevailing party- 
(1) the minor shall recover compensatory damages of not less than 
P10,OOO for each instance of any such material in any such product to 
which such minor was so exposed; 
(2) the minor may recover exemplary damages; 
(3) the court, in its discretion, may allow the minor a reasonable 
attorney's fee (including expert fees) as part of the costs; and 
(4) the court may order any other appropriate relief. 
SECTION 4. Affirmative Defense- It is an affirmative defense to an action 
under this section that a parent or guardian of the minor owned or possessed the 
entertainment product containing the material to which the minor was exposed, 


and an act of that parent or guardian was the proximate cause of the minor's 
exposure to that material; 
SECTION 5. Definition of terms- 
I. 
"Entertainment Product" means a picture, photograph, image, graphic 
image file, drawing, video game, motion picture film, or similar visual 
representation or image, book, pamphlet, magazine, printed matter, or sound 
recording. 
2. "Material that is harmful to minors" means any pornographic 
communication, picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, writing, or 
other pornographic matter of any kind that is obscene or that- 
a. the average person, applying the contemporary standards of the 
adult community in which the minor resides with respect to what is suitable 
for minors, would find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to 
minors of the ages that the person reasonably would expect to be 
exposed to the material- 
(i) is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the 
prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion, with respect to minors; 
and 
(ii) depicts, describes, or represents, in a manner patently 
offensive with respect to minors, an actual or simulated sexual act 
or sexual contact, an actual or simulated normal or perverted 
sexual act, or a lewd exhibition of the genitals or post-pubescent 
female breast: and 
b. a reasonable person would find, taken as a whole, lacks serious 
literary, artistic, political, and scientific value for minors sufficient to 
overcome the pernicious effect of that material. 
3. "Minor" means an individual under the age of 18, 
SECTION 6. Separability Clause. - In the event that any provision or part of this 
Act shall be declared unconstitutional by the courts, the remaining provisions shall 
remain valid and in full force and effect. 
SECTION 7. Repealing Clause. - All laws, orders, rules and regulations or part 
thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed or amended 
accordingly. 
SECTION 8. Date of Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after 
its publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2) national newspapers of general 
circulation whichever comes earlier 
Approved,