DepEd eyes social media safety measures to protect PH learners

To enhance learners’ safety, the Department of Education (DepEd) said Wednesday it is eyeing to implement measures to advance social media safety among basic education learners.

This comes as the agency calls for supplementary funding under the proposed 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) to enhance school safety in public schools, in light of the campus shooting incident at Banga National High School in South Cotabato on Sept. 18.

In an interview, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said learners' digital activities must be supervised to protect them from online risks.

“Kasama na diyan ‘yung ARAL (Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning) program, pero may kasama tayong mental health din at saka social media safety tayo (included in the [requests] are the ARAL program, but we also have for mental health and social media safety),” he said on the sidelines of the ADOPT ICT launch at the Cornelio C. Dalena Elementary School in Pakil, Laguna.

“Dahil nakita natin, mahirap kapag unsupervised ang mga bata sa social media. So, lahat iyan isasama-sama natin (We saw that it is difficult for learners to remain unsupervised on social media. So, we will cover it all).”

This move is still in line with the directives of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to intensify school safety and ensure the well-being of learners and teachers in the country’s school system.

“Ang gusto ng pangulo, mas safe and secured yung ating school communities, mas bonded tayo – mas malapit tayo sa isa’t isa (The President wants safer and more secure school communities, that we are more bonded and closer among ourselves),” Angara said.

He, meanwhile, lauded the efforts of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to help regulate and promote a safe online environment for learners.

“Natutuwa nga tayo dahil ‘yung DICT ay kinilusan na ‘yung ibang apps na alam nating may mga nagre-recruit ng kung sinu-sino para ang mga bata, nilalason ‘yung kanilang mga utak (We are glad that the DICT has acted against other applications that we know are being used for recruiting kids, corrupting their minds),” Angara said.

“At least ngayon, medyo nag-strikto na si DICT. Natutuwa kami dahil siyempre yung mga bata dapat talagang i-supervise yung Internet use nila (for now, the DICT has been stricter. We are glad because the youth’s Internet use really needs to be supervised).”

On Monday, the DepEd said it aims to launch a School Digital Safety campaign, which will translate curriculum into simple concepts applicable to daily practices.

This will cover practical and age-appropriate guidelines on safe chatting and online behavior, grooming and online child exploitation, cyberbullying, and online harassment, privacy, scams, and protecting personal information.

It also seeks to advance responsible social media use, gaming and online safety, exposure to violent or harmful online content, healthy screen time, and digital well-being, as well as warning signs, reporting, referral, and what to do when something happens.