House OKs child online safety bill on final reading to address emerging threats
In a statement, ML Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima said, the digital landscape that our children inhabit has become a hunting ground for predators who operate with technological sophistication that our current legal frameworks have not yet matched. Every day, across our archipelago, children are exploited through livestreamed abuse, deepfakes engineered to destroy their dignity.
On June 2, 2026, the House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill that seeks to strengthen the country’s protections against online child sexual abuse and exploitation, with new safeguards addressing threats posed by artificial intelligence (AI). House Bill No. 9461 or the proposed Child Online Safety and Protection Act of 2026 got 284 votes in the plenary session.
The bill strengthens and expands Republic Act No. 11930, or the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials Act, by broadening enforcement mechanisms and updating legal protections to address emerging threats.
Among its key provisions is the expansion of the definition of child sexual abuse or exploitation materials to include artificial intelligence-generated, synthetic and digitally manipulated content, including deepfakes involving children.
The measure also criminalizes a broader range of offenses, including online grooming, sexual extortion, luring, image-based sexual abuse and livestreamed exploitation. Those convicted of producing, distributing, livestreaming or facilitating child sexual abuse materials may face life imprisonment and fines of at least P2 million.
Individuals found guilty of possessing such materials may face up to 20 years in prison, while those convicted of knowingly accessing them may face penalties of up to 12 years imprisonment.
House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” G. Dy III said: “The message is simple and unequivocal: those who exploit children, whether through digital platforms, financial networks or emerging technologies, will be pursued and held accountable. Technology may evolve, but our commitment to protecting children must remain one step ahead of those who seek to harm them.”
Meanwhile, in Dec. 2025, Australia made history by enforcing a legislated social media ban for their citizens who are under 16 years of age. The country became one of the first nations to push back so forcefully against tech companies with immense political power, in a move other countries are looking at closely. The government says unprecedented measures are needed to protect children from “predatory algorithms” filling phone screens with bullying, sex and violence.
Social media, being a media platform, primarily functions as source of news, information, general knowledge and entertainment. But the nonstop flow and sheer volume of materials can really be intimidating and outright disturbing. What is really alarming is the influence on young minds in the time when they are most vulnerable to absorb anything they see on the screen.
Reference: House OKs child online safety bill with AI safeguards
Flip Phones. Flip phones have become a small escape hatch for people who want calls and texts without carrying every app they’ve ever regretted downloading. The Motorola Razr still has that snap-shut satisfaction, and newer basic phones give people a way to be reachable without being fully swallowed by a screen.
iPods. Used iPods are getting attention again because they do one job and one job only. Loading a Nano, Classic, or Touch with your own music library feels more personal than letting an app decide what you should listen to.
Instant Cameras. Polaroid and Fujifilm Instax cameras keep showing up at parties, weddings, dorm rooms, and weekend trips because the photo provides a tangible memory. The colors can be strange, the flash can be harsh, and someone will probably blink, but it’s still more fun than uploading memories to Google Photos.
Point-and-Shoots. Canon PowerShots, Sony Cyber-shots, Nikon Coolpix cameras, and other small digital cameras from the 2000s are back in purses and jacket pockets. They make photos look less polished than iPhone shots, with red-eye, blur, and flash glare that somehow feel closer to how the night actually felt.
Wired Headphones. Apple EarPods and other wired headphones have gone from boring backup gear to an actual style choice. They don’t need charging, they don’t vanish into couch cushions as easily, and they’re much more budget-friendly.
Cassette Players. Cassette players and tape decks are getting attention from people who like music that takes a little effort. Rewinding, flipping sides, and dealing with a worn-out case can be annoying, sure, but the whole process feels more involved than tapping shuffle for the 400th time.
Boomboxes. The modern boombox comeback is more of a compromise than anything else, since plenty of new models look old while offering Bluetooth connection. That mix gives people the chunky 1980s and 1990s look without asking them to fully return to D batteries, warped tapes, and radio static.
Reference: 20 signs the internet is falling back in love with old tech
Paul Chen, Altos Senior Business Development Manager, said: “Across a three-year timeline, an on-premises AI development system could pay for itself in the first year, and may end up being as little as a third of the total cost of ownership of subscribing to cloud-based AI services.”
Chen gave tech journalists a glimpse into its workstation and server offerings, bannered by the BrainSphere GB10 F1 mini AI workstation powered by the NVIDIA G810 Grace Blackwell Superchip. During the launch, he said: “For enterprises, government agencies and educational institutions, this represents substantial savings.”
According to Altos, the mini desktop delivers up to 1 PetaFLOP of Al computing power, and can handle even the most demanding Al workloads with ease. The system already includes a 10 Cortex X-925 and 10 Cortex A725 CPU, paired with 128GB of LPDDR5X unified memory and up to 4TB of NVMe storage.
Moreover, Altos said the mini AI workstation can handle model development and prototyping to fine-tuning and real-time inference, and is ideal for Al developers, startups, researchers, and educational institutions. It also comes with the Altos aiGeni. Two mini workstations can also be interconnected for more demanding workloads.
Large enterprises and institutions that need to train and run complex AI models meanwhile can tap Altos’ line of BrainSphere R680 F7 servers that can use eight Nvidia H200, RTX PrO 6000 Blackwell or L40S GPUs paired with Intel Xeon 6 series CPUs. The servers run Altos’ aiWorks platform.
The Acer unit said their systems can be used in healthcare, with medical imaging and voice-to-text clinical documentation as two of several applications. They can also be used in education and research, with centralized GPU management for classrooms and labs, one-click JupyterLab and Al course environments, and role-based access for professors, TAs, and students.
Acer carefully consider environmental factors in every stage of the product life cycle. This includes selecting materials during design, through packaging and shipping, to usage and recycling to reduce environmental impacts.
