Chalssea Kate Echegoyen

Article (news)

ABS-CBN News

<div> </div><div> </div><div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1786433280811IMG_9935.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>TikTok launches its #ThinkTwice Family Check-In Guide campaign on Tuesday, Aug.11 at the Manila Polo Club. (Photo by Chalssea Echegoyen/ABS CBN News)</div>MANILA – As lawmakers consider restricting social media access for children, child-rights advocates and a pediatrician are warning that keeping young people off platforms will not, by itself, make them safer online.During the launch of TikTok’s “#ThinkTwice,” child-rights advocates Shiela Estabillo, Amihan Abueva, Dr. Francis Dimalanta, and TV Host Kim Atienza or “Kuya Kim,” said that for children who have grown up with smartphones and social platforms, the issue is more complicated than simply setting an age cutoff.&quot;One thing is clear, they don&#x27;t see the online world as simply good or bad, because it&#x27;s already part of their everyday life,&quot; said Estabillo of Plan international Pilipinas. &quot;This is where they study, this is where they express themselves, this is where they connect with their friends, and this is where they gather information and even entertainment,&quot; she said.Tiktok, in partnership with Child Rights Coalition Asia, Child Rights Network, and Plan International Pilipinas, officially launched its #ThinkTwice Family Check-in Guide campaign on Tuesday, which aims to provide a one-stop space for families to navigate digital safety. For some Filipino children, social media and messaging apps are also a way to stay connected with parents working abroad.Estabillo recalled an experience from one of the first panelists, whose mother is an overseas Filipino worker telling researchers, &quot;Most of the time, mom is just in the messaging apps. When you eat, you&#x27;re just in the voice call. Half of the time, mom is just in the emoji. For them, that is love in digital form.”UNICEF has estimated that around 2 million children in the Philippines were subjected to online sexual abuse and exploitation in 2021. Its research found that children experienced grooming, threats and blackmail, as well as offers of money or gifts in exchange for sexual acts. The Philippines has since strengthened its legal framework. Republic Act No. 11930, enacted in 2022, criminalizes online sexual abuse and exploitation of children. But legislation alone does not resolve the problem.Abueva, Regional Executive Director of the Child Rights Coalition, said online safety has to be considered alongside children&#x27;s experiences offline.&quot;We have to see the integrity or the link between the online and the offline experience, the real world,&quot; she said.She also raised concerns about children&#x27;s ability to assess the huge volume of information they encounter online.&quot;If our functional literacy is so low, that also means that we&#x27;re very subject to what we get online and the capacity to really analyze this critically is very much impaired,&quot; Abueva said.The concern is particularly relevant in the Philippines, where questions about literacy and critical thinking remain a major education challenge.For Abueva, the internet has become a &quot;very large virtual playground&quot; for children.&quot;But if you don&#x27;t have the skills to use it intelligently, you can get lost,&quot; she said.<div>‘THIS IS LIFE’ FOR CHILDREN</div>Veteran TV host and content creator Kim Atienza offered a parent&#x27;s perspective on how difficult it can be for adults to separate online life from real life.Atienza said he once wanted to cut his daughter off from social media. He changed his mind after realizing that doing so could also isolate her from her friends.&quot;I realized, if I cut off my kid from social media, I cut her off from her friends. I cut her off from life,&quot; he said.That experience changed how he approached parenting in the digital age.&quot;With our kids, we have to let go of our old biases of what&#x27;s correct and not correct during that time because it does not matter,&quot; Atienza said. &quot;We just have to listen without judging.&quot;He argued that parents need to understand the platforms their children use instead of simply telling them to stay away.&quot;We have to meet them where they are,&quot; he said. &quot;We have to learn the language as well.&quot;Atienza said parents should also help children develop the ability to cope without their phones and spend time away from screens.&quot;We cannot take them out of social media because to them, it is life,&quot; he said. &quot;We just have to be halfway.&quot;<div>FROM SURVEILLANCE TO TRUST</div>Dimalanta, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician, similarly argued that today&#x27;s teenagers are growing up in a fundamentally different environment from previous generations.&quot;Every generation of teenagers has had to individuate from their parents and consolidate an identity,&quot; he said. &quot;But what&#x27;s different now is where that identity work happens.&quot;Today&#x27;s teenagers, he said, are exploring their identities &quot;in front of an audience in real time and it&#x27;s algorithmically curated.&quot;&quot;Trust, not surveillance, is what makes a teen come to you first the next time something goes wrong,&quot; the pediatrician said.Estabillo made a similar point, urging parents to move from control to connection.&quot;Because we cannot monitor our children and anything they do online,&quot; she said. &quot;We need to have a connection with them.&quot;She suggested that parents start with curiosity rather than interrogation.Instead of asking, &quot;Who are you chatting with?&quot; or &quot;Why are you always online?,” parents could ask what trend their children are following, what they watched that day or even ask them to explain an unfamiliar term.The objective, she said, is to make digital safety &quot;an ongoing conversation.&quot;<div>RESPONSIBILITY OF TECH COMPANIES</div>The discussion also highlighted a question that cannot be left entirely to parents: the responsibility of technology companies.Abueva said platforms should be held accountable when their systems are used to facilitate harassment, abuse or manipulation.&quot;We can only do so much as parents, child advocates, and children,&quot; she said. &quot;It&#x27;s still an app. There&#x27;s still a company behind it who earns. And I think they have to really take responsibility when their apps are misused.&quot;Abueva said the solution requires looking at both the digital and physical environments in which children grow up.&quot;We need to create the environment to really protect our children online,&quot; she said. &quot;We have to make the offline, the real life also safe for children.&quot;

As lawmakers consider restricting social media access for children, child-rights advocates and a pediatrician are warning that keeping young people off platforms will not, by itself, make them safer online.

As lawmakers consider restricting social media access for children, child-rights advocates and a pediatrician are warning that keeping young people off platforms will not, by itself, make them safer online.

Experts weigh social media age limit amid debate on how to keep children safe online

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Experts weigh social media age limit amid debate on how to keep children safe online

Chalssea Kate Echegoyen,

ABS-CBN News

Published August 11, 2026 07:42 PM PHT

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