00:00First of all, tell us why you think that your country needs these sorts of restrictions on social media.
00:07Well, recently we've been seeing a lot of cases of self-harm and also attempted suicide.
00:18And there's also a lot of discussion on the effects of social media to mental health, particularly leading to self
00:27-harm and also to attempted suicide.
00:29And also, whenever I talk to parents, and these are all anecdotes, but whenever I talk to parents, parents see
00:36also a lot of inactivity, meaning their kids are not playing with other kids.
00:41Their kids are not going out to the parks anymore. A lot of them are just glued to their cell
00:46phone.
00:46So there's also public push to ban social media and also to regulate cell phone use among minors.
00:59Big tech, though, will tell you that they already have strong safeguards for young people.
01:05So why are more restrictions needed and what sort of restrictions are you pushing for?
01:10Are we talking about something similar to outright bans that we have seen in Australia, for example, or perhaps parental
01:16supervision like we've seen in the likes of Brazil or Portugal?
01:20Well, social media will always say whatever that's beneficial to them.
01:27So that's given already.
01:29But at least in my case, I filed a bill to ban social media for children age 16 and below.
01:37And my case is children should be playing with other children, children should be going out to parks, going out
01:47to the playground.
01:48They should also have social interaction with other kids.
01:52What social media created is addiction to their platforms.
01:57And a lot of kids spend a lot of time now, on the average, I'm looking at the data right
02:04now, on the average, children age 16 and below spend about five to six hours a day here in the
02:09Philippines on their cell phones, most particularly social media.
02:15So, in other words, children are not socializing anymore.
02:20They spend six hours a day on their cell phones, morning and also at night.
02:27And this is also a problem when they spend a lot of time at night because instead of sleeping and
02:32resting, they doomscrolling now.
02:35And that also deprives them.
02:38But, Senator, young people will actually say it's not just doomscrolling.
02:42It's not just being online, it's actually connecting with other people as well, that that gives them emotional support.
02:49And also, others worry about perhaps marginalized youth, LGBTQ+, people who cannot express themselves, disabled people who cannot leave
02:58their homes.
02:59Is this a risk?
03:02Well, people, children can socialize physically with other children.
03:09And this probably will be an argument that we hear many, many times, especially with people like in my age,
03:18that during our time, we socialize with other kids physically.
03:21We play with other kids, we hang out with other kids, and we interact with other kids.
03:28It's that physical interaction is more stronger.
03:31The bond you develop is more stronger than compared to a digital platform.
03:38And other than social interaction, it's the physical activity.
03:43People play, children play in playgrounds.
03:46They also play with one another.
03:47So, that's also very important because that creates a healthy lifestyle for them.
03:54Now, in terms of expression, there's so many ways to expressing yourself.
03:58You can express it in your community.
04:01You can also express it through in your school.
04:05So, there's no limitation to expressing yourself.
04:10So, aside from the harms and the benefits of social media, how are you looking at the possibility that, let's
04:20say, a social media ban is passed?
04:22What does that mean in terms of freedom of speech in your country and the constitutionality of it?
04:28Do you expect the courts to side with such a ban, or is there a risk that they might shoot
04:34it down?
04:35Well, freedom of speech also have limitations.
04:41And we can prove very clearly that social media is also creating a lot of mental health issues.
04:48And these mental health issues is detrimental to our youth and to the future of this nation.
04:55So, in other words, we can still, children can still express themselves through other means and other fora.
05:04But we need to make sure that their well-being is also protected.
05:09And we have to make sure that they are brought up and their well-being is not affected negatively by
05:17social media and also the algorithms that they are exposed.
05:21Thank you for listening.
05:21Thank you for Genesis.
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