Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian on Wednesday, August 19 renewed his call for the passage of the measure that would ban children aged 16 and below from using social media.

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian (Senate Facebook)

Gatchalian made the call in the wake of another fatal school shooting incident in Zamboanga City where two minors died, including the shooter.

The Senate chief flagged how the shooting incident was live streamed by the shooter for countless viewers to see and repost, which caused distress to social media users.

And aside from causing distress, he warned that the livestreaming and sharing of the shooting incident's clips, including other graphic materials, risk normalizing violence among viewers, especially the youth.

“Patuloy nating isinusulong ang social media ban para sa mga menor de edad upang itaguyod ang kanilang kaligtasan at kapakanan (We continue to push for a social media ban for minors to safeguard their safety and well-being),” Gatchalian said.

“Hindi na natin maaaring hayaan na manaig ang pinsala ng social media at ang impluwensiya nito upang itulak sa karahasan ang ating mga kabataan (We can no longer allow the harmful effects of social media and its influence to drive our youth toward violence),” he pointed out.

Gatchalian earlier reiterated the urgent need to pass into law, Senate Bill No. 2066 or the proposed Social Media Safety for Children Act, following the deadly June 22 shooting in Tacloban City and other reported school violence.

In the Tacloban City incident, which happened at San Jose National High School, two Grade 9 students reportedly opened fire inside the campus, killing three students and injuring 20 others.

According to authorities, one of the suspects allegedly played the violent online game Gorebox before the attack.

Gatchalian said the proposed measure also mandates social media platforms to implement safeguards such as age and identity verification systems, measures to prevent the circumvention of age restrictions, and prompt reporting and response mechanisms for underage access, among others.

The Senate leader said SB No. 2066 is one of the priority bills he earlier submitted.

“That, for me, is the priority. It’s one of the priority bills that I submitted,” he said in an interview last June 2026.

“The biggest question here is what influences children these days to commit violence? Children are not violent in nature. There are influences that happen that affect the way they think,” he stressed.