Measures vs harmful social media content raised at Senate hearing

MANILA, Philippines—The idea of disabling the automatic promotion and demonetizing violent and sexually graphic content was floated at a Senate hearing on Friday in light of recent incidents of violence in schools allegedly linked to online games.

While tackling the proposed P49.99 million budget of the Movie and Television Review and Classification (MTRCB) for 2027, Sen. Erwin Tulfo raised the  August 18  school  shooting in Zamboanga City that left two students dead, including the shooter. 

READ: 2 reported victims in Zamboanga City school building

 Earlier reports said that video games might have  influenced the perpetrator, a Grade 8 student, who opened fire on campus while livestreaming the incident through a body camera on a website and social media. 

READ: Remulla: Video games led Tacloban, Zamboanga shooters to rabbit hole

“May steps po ba kayo? Are you already talking about this? How do you, your agency will control this?” Tulfo asked during the hearing of the Senate subcommittee on finance.

While explaining that online gaming and video games are not covered by the agency’s mandate, MTRCB Chairperson Diorella Maria “Lala” Sotto-Antonio told the panel that they have been conducting “exploratory research” on the matter.

“We are continuing the discussions on this exploration,” Sotto-Antonio said, before referring the question to  MTRCB Executive Director Roberto Diciembre.

Citing global studies on violence in social media, Diciembre said the country could adopt a “do not amplify” policy that would  require major social media platforms to block automatic promotions and monetizations of violent content.

“If there will be a law na hahawakan ang mga social media na ito, we can tell them na dapat hindi naka-autoplay ang mga violent content sa mga materials natin,” he said.

(“If there will be a law governing these social media platforms, we can tell them that violent content in their materials should not be set to autoplay.)

“Kung pwede, hindi ma-monetize because sa totoo lang, isa sa mga motivation ng mga content creators, syempre ma-monetize yung gagawin nilang content. If these videos, at yung violent videos, sex videos ay made-demonetize, I think mababawasan yung mga gano’ng materials,” Diciembre added.

(“If possible, they should not be monetized because, to be honest, one of the motivations of content creators is, of course, to monetize the content they produce. If these videos, particularly violent and sexually explicit videos, are demonetized, I think there would be fewer such materials.”)

There should also be stronger protections for minors using these platforms,  such as age-gating graphic content and imposing enhanced safeguards for livestreaming.

“Repeated exposure to violent content should trigger additional safeguards,” the  MTRCB official said.

Diciembre answered in the affirmative when Tulfo asked whether the MTRCB could do nothing for now in  the absence of a law granting it authority over  these online platformers.

There are ongoing discussions in Congress on a measure seeking to ban social media use among children under 13.

NOTE: The English translations in the article were AI-generate