[Tech Thoughts] The tightrope walk between online safety and draconian laws

Balancing public safety interests with overreaching laws needs to be intensely scrutinized by the public, unless they want to lose out in all the ways that matter The Philippines' DICT is requesting Meta Platforms to integrate the national ID into the account verification process for its social media platforms to confirm users' age and identity. Concerns about data privacy and security arise as the integration could lead to potential overreach by both the government and Meta, especially given the incomplete rollout of the national ID system. A balanced approach is needed to ensure that all eligible Filipinos can access social media without compromising personal data, emphasizing the importance of transparency and public scrutiny in the implementation process. This is AI-generated. Read the article for full context. Report any errors. The Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), under its secretary, Henry Aguda, wants Meta Platforms to integrate the country’s national ID into the account verification process for its social media platforms, namely Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp. Details on the request aren’t all there quite yet, but the current reasoning suggests users will be asked to provide specific data from their national ID to confirm that they are of age to use Meta’s suite of social media platforms and prove they’re the person actually using it. Either that, or it may perhaps ask users to provide another form of identifying data, like their passport or driver’s license, to get through the verification process. From a logistical standpoint, it may feel like a no-brainer to get people on board with such a move in the interests of public safety, but I do feel the DICT and the Philippine government need to be clear with what they plan to do before they go and push a plan through for consideration. Balancing public safety interests with overreaching, potentially draconian laws needs to be intensely scrutinized by the public, unless they want to lose out in all the ways that matter. What data do we give out? Specifically, I’m curious about what Meta will want to ask from a user to verify their age. Current age estimation hinges on facial recognition, but that can be circumvented by stubborn teens with uninterested parents giving away their selfies. Asking users to provide an ID makes the process of circumvention harder, but then we also deal with data privacy and data security concerns. Instead of just dealing with the government as a point of failure, you’re now also dealing with a corporation handling portions of a country’s data. All Meta might need is the name and birthdate on your national ID, and nothing else, but that’d also depend on the arrangement between the Philippine government and whatever Philippine arm of Meta they’re planning to bring in. According to a TechWatch PH report, TraXion Tech founder and CEO Ann Cuisia suggested using a “Yes” or “No” approach to the verification — where a yes means you’re old enough, no extra information needed — but we would still need to integrate with Meta and have the systems in place to tell them that Person A should get access to social media and not Person B. How do we handle technological haves and have-nots? One consideration that needs to be taken into account is the fact that the rollout of the national ID system hasn’t gotten to everyone yet. According to Worldometer, there are nearly 118 million Filipinos now, and PhilSys said in a December 2025 release that it has gotten to about 90 million Filipinos so far into the project as of October 2025. That’s about 28 million Filipinos who might not get access to a common form of socialization online, assuming they even have a smartphone or are knowledgeable enough about technology to want to use social media to begin with. Whether not having social media access is good or bad might be beside the point, though. What’s important to note here is that under this potential plan, not every eligible Filipino who wants access to social media will be able to get to use it if they’re completely without any form of identification — a problem that’s noticeable seeing as we have a physical national ID card backlog. What do we give up? I would prefer my personal details to be kept with me, so I’m inclined to want some kind of measured approach where everyone can have a stake in the process of instituting it. It might take longer to implement, but there’s less chance of it being haphazard if everyone has eyes on it.I wonder if it’d be possible for the Philippine Statistics Authority to align with social media companies to develop a system that determines who’s old enough to get access to Facebook, Instagram, X, and the like, without them giving the data out. Moreover, I would want the system to not be opaque so cybersecurity experts and the Filipino public can scrutinize the plans and implementation accordingly. The DICT unilaterally saying, “Hey, this is OKAY!” does not sit right with me. As always, checks and balances are needed. If the Philippines is to walk a tightrope between online safety and draconian overreach, everyone should be watching to make sure we don’t fall into the deep end. – Rappler.com How does this make you feel? Loading