Immediate passage of the Child Online Safety and Protection Act-an expanded version of the original Anti-Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) Law-is being pushed among the urgent interventions meant to reckon with the rise of school violence that has confounded authorities.
In seeking immediate passage, Senator Risa Hontiveros stressed that the measure equips the state with the legal authority it needs to confront Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE).
The bill is currently in the period of amendments in the Senate and has passed on third reading in the House.
‘This bill should be certified as urgent. NVE is an alarming new trend that needs immediate action. Passing the amended Anti-OSAEC bill would give law enforcement agencies the tools to apprehend suspects and perpetrators. Huwag na nating hintayin na dumami pa ang school shooting bago umaksyon,’ Hontiveros said.
Presiding over the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality hearing on NVE, the senator said the chamber now has a rare legislative window to close the gaps that allow the same digital ecosystems to groom, radicalize, and steer children toward violence.
OSAEC and NVE remain distinct threats, she noted, but both are enabled by the same digital platforms, the same blind spots, and the same failures of early detection and child protection. The bill, if passed, will punish these forms of technology-facilitated violence against children, sexual or non-sexual.
Hontiveros has been at the forefront of child online safety policy since authoring the original Anti-OSAEC law, and has continued to press for its full and faithful implementation through sustained Senate oversight.
‘We authored the Anti-OSAEC law to shield our children from different forms of online abuse and exploitation. Ngayong may panibagong banta laban sa kanila, tungkulin nating tugunan ito nang walang pag aalinlangan,’ the senator concluded.