Strict social media membership rules pushed to curb cybercrime

Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. is proposing the mandatory authentication of online and social media memberships in the country to address cyber bullying, illicit drug trade, and prostitution.

He filed House Bill 4093 seeking the registration of online and social media accounts using any valid government-issued identifucation and/or barangay certificates.

“It aims to address cyber bullying, harassment, online scam and libel and even illicit drug trade and prostitution by holding individuals, private and public entities accountable for their online interactions,” Teves said.

“To verify identities, online social networking services will be obliged to require their users, whether resident or non-resident, to supply and link their accounts to the valid identification numbers provided by the government,” he said.

The neophyte lawmaker laments that the social media has been used as a mode to bully and harass individuals and institutions.

In a 2015 Stairway Foundation, Inc. survey, 60 percent of Filipino children aged 7 to 12 and 80 percent of teenagers aged 13 to 16 revealed that they were bullied through social media.

“The Cyber Crime Act has not curbed cyberbullying and harassment because it is in spirit libel law extended to the realm of the Internet. The law does not address the issues of traceability and accountability that should be inherent in social media accounts from the point of registration,” Teves said.