eta and gaming platform Roblox have agreed to strengthen child-safety protections for Philippine users, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda said on Thursday.
The measures include age-verification, parental controls, faster takedowns of harmful content and closer cooperation with law enforcement, he said.Â
The commitments were made during meetings between Philippine officials and executives of Meta and Roblox in Singapore, Aguda told Reuters.Â
Meta and Roblox did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Â
The agreement came a day after Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion over the next decade and impose new safeguards for teenage users in the United States, including usage limits, parental controls and stronger age-assurance measures, to settle claims by US states that its platforms harmed children.
Ahead of the talks, Aguda said the US settlement would “boost” discussions with Meta on child safety and platform accountability.
“Both agreed to the safety protocols that we requested,” including locating their office in the Philippines, providing age verification, cooperating with law enforcement, faster takedown of content, Aguda said in a phone interview after the meetings.Â
Roblox is aiming to establish a Philippine office as early as October, Aguda said, while Meta would send a team to Manila to discuss a timeline for expanding its presence.Â
The talks come as Philippine lawmakers consider measures to tighten protections for minors online, including proposals that would restrict or ban children’s access to social media.
Calls for stronger regulation intensified after a fatal shooting at a university in the southern Philippines last week, with officials saying a student livestreamed the attack, and following a separate incident of school violence in June.Â
Philippine officials have increasingly linked concerns over youth safety, online harms and social media platforms to the broader debate over regulation of minors’ access to digital services.
Aguda said Meta and Roblox also agreed to engage with legislators as Congress considers online safety measures.
Asked whether the companies were open to a potential social media ban for minors, Aguda said they have indicated they would cooperate with whatever policy Philippine lawmakers ultimately adopt.
The historic settlement between Meta and dozens of US states could be just the start of a wave that will ripple across the social media industry, putting TikTok, YouTube and Snap under pressure to make similar changes to their apps for teens.
Parts of the settlement hinge on whether those three companies, referred to as “Core Industry Members” in a legal filing, take similar action.
It’s “the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us,” Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said in a statement.
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