DICT Sec. Henry Aguda delivers his keynote speech during Meta Philippines’ Screen Smart digital literacy event in Makati on June 18, 2026 (Photo by ISABELLE PECHAY / Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Nine out of 10 young Filipinos navigate online spaces, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) chief said in a digital literacy event in Makati on Thursday.
According to DICT Secretary Henry Aguda, “80 percent of the digital platform traffic right now is still through Facebook or through the whole Meta ecosystem.”
“And in our youth, there’s still a lot. Nine out of 10 of our youth are online and that accounts for a huge traffic,” he said in his keynote speech.
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National Youth Commission (NYC) Chairperson Joseph Francisco “Jeff” Ortega, who was also in attendance, stressed that this makes teenagers vulnerable to various forms of online harm .
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“There’s an increment of different exposures, whether that’s bullying and then, it leads to suicide, and then, there’s online prostitution and abuse, to trafficking. It really extends,” Ortega told the Inquirer in an interview.
Balancing protection and access
Despite these risks, officials and child welfare advocates maintained that safety measures should not come at the expense of young people’s access to digital spaces.
Ortega, along with other panelists in the event, highlighted the importance of cyber hygiene and cyber resilience education, alongside the responsibility of parents, government agencies, and technology platforms to help protect children online.
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Usec. Angelo Tapales, executive director of the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), echoed this saying, “Children have the right to have meaningful access to digital technology and the right to protection . I think we have to balance those two rights.”
The discussion took place during Screen Smart, a digital literacy initiative organized by Meta Philippines in partnership with government agencies and child welfare groups. /apl
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