Sen. Grace Poe has filed a bill seeking to make social media awareness a part of primary and secondary education in public and private schools.
Poe filed Senate Bill No. 129 which seeks the inclusion of social media and its importance into the curriculum of primary and secondary levels of education in the country.
SB No. 129 was one of the first 10 measures she filed to begin her second six-year term at the Senate.
“Social media is upon us and should be put to good use by teaching the youth the value of responsible, fair, and truthful usage,” Poe said.
“Magandang lugar ang mga paaralan para maimulat ang mga kabataan sa responsable, mapanuri, at produktibong paggamit ng social media. Kailangang mabigyan din sila ng sapat na impormasyon kung ano ang maaaring i-post, ano ang mga dapat iwasang paniwalaan agad, at kung paano mag-beripika ng mga datos. Para na rin ito sa kanilang kaligtasan,” she added.
In her bill, the Department of Education, in consultation with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, shall immediately formulate the necessary steps and measures to achieve these objectives.
Aside from elementary and high school, Poe also sought to include social media education in the National Service Training Program, particularly in the service components pertaining to the Literacy Training Service and the Civic Welfare Training Service.
The bill tasks the Commission on Higher Education and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, in consultation with DICT, to lead its implementation.
Digital 2019, a report from Hootsuite and We are Social showing people’s online behavior around the world, found out that Filipinos spend an average of 10 hours a day on the Internet.
Digital 2019 also revealed that social media use in the Philippines is at 71 percent, above the worldwide average of 45 percent. It said Filipinos spend the most time on social media at four hours and 12 minutes on average per day.
It also showed that 79 million Filipinos aged 13 and older are on social media. (Vanne Terrezola)
