Social media ban pushed anew for kids 16 and below
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Monday renewed his call for a social media ban on individuals aged 16 and below after the Indonesian government blocked children below 16 years old from high-risk platforms.
In a press statement, Gatchalian cited the results of the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment, which found that for every additional hour spent by 15-year-old Filipino students on digital devices for leisure, there was a four-point drop in math scores.
“Let’s not wait for the problem to get worse before we take action,” he said.
Indonesia is the first country in Southeast Asia to enforce a social media ban for those under age 16. Under the new rules that took effect on March 28, children 15 years old and below will be prohibited from creating accounts on platforms deemed “high-risk,” including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Roblox, among others.
Gatchalian’s call also came after a Los Angeles jury found YouTube and Meta liable for contributing to childhood social media addiction.
On March 18, the senator said he was studying the possibility of banning minors from social media after the police reported that it thwarted an alleged plan by a group of teenagers to attack a school last month. The teenagers were recruited through a popular online platform that hosts computer games.
