Senator Joel Villanueva appealed to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory (LEDAC) to include among the administration’s priority measures his bill seeking to protect children from harmful social media platforms.

The Senate’s renewed urgency comes in response to the June 22 school shooting incident that occurred in Tacloban City. It claimed the lives of three individuals and injured 20.

The bill aims to restrict access by users below 15 years old to platforms containing content deemed harmful or inappropriate—the responsibility for enforcing the prohibition falls on platform operators.

“It prohibits access by age-restricted users to covered platforms, while placing the primary responsibility on platform operators to enforce such prohibition,” Villanueva wrote in the proposed Act.

“Rather than penalizing young users, the measure ensures that those who design, operate, and profit from digital platforms are held accountable for maintaining a safe environment,” the bill read.

The bill stipulates that platform operators implement systems such as age assurance mechanisms, content moderation, safety-by-design features, and processes handling risk management.

Moreover, under the bill, platform operators must cooperate with transparency obligations while ensuring users’ personal data remains protected.

The bill also aims to improve digital literacy among users, institutional support within schools, and to encourage responsible parental involvement.

Alias “Nash,” 14, who, alongside alias “Rod,” 15, opened fire in a classroom at San Jose National High School. Authorities found that Nash was a regular player of GoreBox, a game that allows users to “engage in brutal combat with an extensive arsenal of weapons and explosives, and witness the raw effects of realistic rag-doll physics and an intense gore system that brings dismemberment to life,” according to its Google Play listing.

In an exclusive interview with DZRH on the program Balansyado, Tech Support Professional and Cybersecurity Analyst Art Samaniego Jr. said that video games, regardless of the degree of violence permitted and gore displayed, cannot solely influence a child’s behavior.

Violence, as had taken place in San Jose National High School, was influenced by a combination of factors, including mental health concerns, social well-being, and the children’s environment at home, Samaniego said.