Marcos: No silver bullet to stop school violence

MANILA, Philippines — The administration is studying “really hard” a proposal to impose a blanket ban on minors’ access to high-risk digital services, President Marcos said yesterday as he admitted there is no easy solution to the problem that triggered recent school shootings.

Marcos said violent incidents involving children reflect neither a police nor an education difficulty, but a “psychological problem.”

“This is what we’re trying to understand. And the answers aren’t clear because we’re looking not only at what happens in the Philippines, we’re looking at what’s happening everywhere else in the world because unfortunately, this is a generational problem,” Marcos said.

He said it was not surprising for lawmakers to push for a measure banning what they believe is influencing children to do “terrible” things.

However, he stressed the need to further examine the causes of the problem before deciding whether a blanket ban would be appropriate.

“The blanket ban, that’s also something that (we’re still) studying really hard. Because there are several countries around the world that have already instituted that blanket ban... Let us see if it is the right thing to do and if it suits us,” Marcos said.

“But there’s also one thing that comes out of it, that if you ban it, the children will hide (the activity). You won’t know that the kid is going on to that site, reading all of this, is getting groomed,” he added. “So, it’s really a hard question. I have to say that. And it’s something that strikes at our heart.”

According to Marcos, online service providers have been cooperating with local authorities to address fake news and online grooming.

The Senate recently approved on final reading a bill seeking to ban minors’ access to “high-risk digital services” where young people are believed to be groomed into committing violent acts.

The House of Representatives, meanwhile, approved yesterday on third and final reading House Bill 10858, or the proposed Safe and Friendly Environment for Kids in Digital Spaces Act.

Under the bill, children below 13 years old are barred from creating, maintaining or using online accounts.

The measures were filed in response to recent school shootings in South Cotabato, Zamboanga City and Tacloban, which claimed the lives of nine people.

Safety Week

To further bolster school safety and learner protection, the Department of Education (DepEd) launched National School Safety Week yesterday to strengthen measures against school violence, bullying and online exploitation amid concerns over the influence of digital platforms on young people.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara led the official kickoff at Cainta Elementary School, where national agencies, local government officials, school administrators and parents vowed to work together.

Angara stressed that safeguarding children requires active collaboration between institutions and families.

“We deal with it as a community. We are not powerless. We can do a lot. We have many tools at our disposal to solve this problem in our schools, but we need to come together as a community that loves our children and is concerned about their future,” he said.

National School Safety Week runs from Oct. 12 to 16 across public schools and community learning centers nationwide. — Bella Cariaso, Daphne Galvez