MANILA, Philippines — TikTok is urging Philippine lawmakers to reconsider a blanket ban on social media for minors, arguing that protecting children online may require a more targeted approach—and a bigger role for app stores, parents, technology companies and government.
The proposal comes as Congress weighs tougher restrictions on children’s access to social media amid growing concerns over harmful content, online abuse and the use of digital platforms by young people.
In a document submitted to the House Committee on Welfare of Children, TikTok Head of Public Policy Yves Gonzalez called for a multi-stakeholder approach rather than an outright prohibition of social media for minors. The company argued that a blanket ban could have unintended consequences, including limiting young people’s access to information, communication and online expression.
TikTok’s alternative: Check age before the app is downloaded
One of the company’s key recommendations is to put greater responsibility on app stores, particularly Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store.
Under the proposed framework, app stores could play a central role in age verification and parental consent, allowing a user’s age and, where appropriate, a parent’s approval to be established before certain applications are downloaded.
The concept is not unique to TikTok.
Meta has also argued that age verification and parental approval should ideally happen at the app-store level rather than requiring users to repeatedly submit sensitive information to individual social media platforms.
Meta says Apple and Google already collect age-related information in certain circumstances and have mechanisms for parental approval, making the app store a potential centralized checkpoint for age assurance.
The proposal, however, is controversial.
Apple and Google have raised concerns about making app stores responsible for determining whether users are minors. Google, in particular, has argued that app-store-based approaches may not cover desktop computers, shared devices or apps that are already installed.
What TikTok wants instead of a blanket ban
TikTok’s submission proposes dividing responsibilities among several groups.
App stores would handle age verification and parental consent.
App developers and platforms would be expected to build stronger safety and privacy protections into their products.
Parents and guardians would have a greater role in managing age-sensitive features and children’s online activity.
Government would establish and enforce safety standards.
Rather than automatically banning entire applications, TikTok also suggested focusing regulation on specific high-risk features, including unrestricted messaging with strangers, public location sharing, mature content and potentially harmful recommendation systems.
The argument is essentially this: don’t necessarily block the entire platform—regulate the features that create the greatest risks for children.
The Philippines is already considering tougher restrictions
TikTok’s position comes as Philippine lawmakers consider several competing approaches to child online safety.
Senate Bill No. 2424, or the proposed Child Online Safety and Protection Act, was endorsed by a Senate committee in August. The measure seeks to establish 16 as the minimum age for social media use and impose obligations on social media companies to protect minors from online risks.
Another proposal, Senate Bill No. 2066, filed by Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, also seeks to prohibit social media use by children below 16 and requires platforms to implement age and identity verification, measures against attempts to circumvent age restrictions, and systems for reporting and responding to underage access.
Meanwhile, House Bill No. 9965, or the proposed Children’s Social Media Safety Act, takes a different approach.
The House proposal would prohibit children below 13 from creating or maintaining social media accounts. Users aged 13 to below 18 would generally require verifiable parental or guardian consent and continued supervision.
The bill also proposes age verification, parental controls, safeguards against harmful content and penalties that could reach P50 million for serious violations. Repeated and serious violations could potentially result in restrictions on a platform’s operation, subject to due process.
These are proposals, however, and should not be interpreted as an existing nationwide social-media ban.
Government says blocking platforms should be the last resort
The debate is also unfolding within the Philippine government.
DICT Secretary Henry Aguda recently said that blocking Facebook or other platforms should be considered a last resort, emphasizing efforts to persuade technology companies to comply with child-safety requirements first.
Aguda also said the government’s engagement with TikTok had been effective and that the platform had not presented major compliance problems in their discussions.
The DICT’s position adds another layer to the debate: whether the Philippines should immediately block access to platforms or first impose enforceable requirements on companies to strengthen age verification, identity checks and the rapid removal of harmful content.
The international experience is complicating the debate
The Philippines is not alone in wrestling with the question.
Australia has already implemented a minimum-age regime targeting social media users under 16, while countries in Europe and elsewhere are considering similar restrictions.
But the experience has also highlighted a major problem: how do you reliably determine a user’s age online?
Recent reporting by the Associated Press noted that companies including Meta, Google, TikTok and Roblox are increasingly developing age-assurance systems. These can involve government IDs, artificial-intelligence estimates and behavioral or contextual signals—but none is a perfect solution.
AI-based systems, for example, can estimate whether someone appears to be a minor but cannot necessarily establish a person’s actual date of birth with certainty.
Privacy is another major concern because stronger age verification can require people—including adults—to provide sensitive personal information.
Other tech companies are moving toward stronger safeguards
The pressure on technology companies is growing globally.
In the United States, Meta recently agreed to an $18-billion settlement with states that accused its platforms of harming children, with the agreement including stronger age-assurance measures and additional safeguards for younger users.
In the Philippines, Meta and Roblox have also agreed to strengthen child-safety measures following discussions with government officials. The commitments include age verification, parental controls, faster removal of harmful content and closer cooperation with law enforcement, according to DICT officials cited by Reuters.
That suggests the Philippine debate may ultimately move beyond a simple question of “ban or don’t ban.”
The bigger question could become: Who should be responsible for determining a child’s age—and where should that verification happen?
The difficult balance: safety, privacy and access
Child-safety advocates have legitimate concerns about the dangers minors can encounter online.
The Philippine Pediatric Society, for example, has said it does not recommend independent social media use among children aged 16 and below and has called for parental supervision if access is permitted.
But a total ban also has potential drawbacks.
A Philippine child-protection specialist previously warned that some teenagers use social media as a source of support, belonging and connection, meaning an outright prohibition could remove potentially beneficial digital spaces along with harmful ones.
That tension is playing out internationally as well. France’s Constitutional Council recently struck down a proposed under-15 social media ban after finding problems involving freedom of expression and privacy safeguards surrounding age verification.
What happens next?
For Filipino parents, children and social media users, the immediate takeaway is important: there is no single nationwide social-media ban currently in force based on these proposals.
Instead, lawmakers are debating several possible models—from a minimum age of 16, to restrictions for younger children, to mandatory parental consent, age verification and stronger platform accountability.
TikTok’s latest proposal puts the spotlight on another possibility: make Apple and Google part of the age-verification system instead of placing the entire burden on social media platforms.
Whether lawmakers embrace that approach remains to be seen.
But as pressure mounts for stronger protection of Filipino children online, the next battle may not simply be over whether minors should be allowed on social media.
It could be over who gets to decide their age in the first place—and how much personal information Filipinos will have to surrender to prove it.
WWC ONE MEDIA J.M.S
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