UNIPH 2021 PKO Executive Summary

Philippines Kids Online
The Online Experiences of Children in the

Philippines: Opportunities, Risks and Barriers
A Summary
Philippines Kids Online
The Online Experiences of Children in the Philippines:
Opportunities, Risks and Barriers
A Summary
Cover photograph: © UNICEF Philippines
Design and layout: Beetlebugs Communications, Inc.
© UNICEF Philippines 2020

Young children play games in an internet cafe in a community in the Philippines. © UNICEF Philippines/2019/SNoorani
Introduction
The digital world is one that offers a host of opportunities, benefits, excitement and thrills for adults
and children alike. Increasingly, the online lives of individuals are inseparable from the world and lives
offline. For children and young people in particular, the digital world and Internet is so embedded in
the everyday lives and activities, from means of communication with family friends, and strangers,
to sources of information and knowledge, that it is increasingly impossible to separate the online
form the offline. While this comes with a wealth of benefits and advantages, it also comes with
risks, and it is only in truly understanding how children go online – where and what devices and
instruments they use to go online, how they learn, who supports them online, and what they do –
that one can ensure that this new domain in which children live their life, that is so embedded with
the domains of family and homes, schools, and broader communities, is best suited to maximise the
benefits, while minimizing and mitigating the risks and harms that might be attached to the space.
While snippets and snapshots of some information on children’s engagement and interaction with
the digital world within the Philippines are known, there is as yet no comprehensive picture of how
children (and their parents or caregivers) in the Philippines use and interact with digital technology
and the Internet in their lives, or of the nature of their experiences, positive and negative.
Philippines Kids Online 1

The Online Experiences of Children in the Philippines: Opportunities, Risks and Barriers
The Philippines Kids Online (PKO) study seeks to fill that gap. Drawing on the foundational work of
the Global Kids Online (GKO) network,1 PKO is a national research study, conducted between 2017
and 2019, to collect nationally representative data on children’s access to, use of, and experiences of,
digital technology and the Internet.2 The study collected data from both children, and their parents
or caregivers, throughout the Philippines. PKO has six specific objectives:
1. Describe the demographic profile of children in the Philippines aged 9-17 years who use the
Internet.
2. Determine how children in the Philippines use and access the Internet and the level of their
digital skills.
3. Determine the benefits and opportunities of online/digital use available to children in the
Philippines.
4. Estimate the prevalence of online abuse experienced by children among these age groups.
5. Identify safety practices of children in the Philippines when using the Internet; and
6. Identify how parents mediate the use of the Internet by their children.
A framework for understanding children’s

experiences of digital technology and the
Internet.
Children’s online experiences are explored within the different contexts, or environments, in
which they live their everyday lives. A child’s life is shaped and informed by their own individual
characteristics and traits, that are themselves influenced by all of those around the child – their parents
or caregivers, their extended family, friends and peers, their households, schools, and communities.
All these different influencers shape every child’s everyday experiences, and how they interact with
their environment around them. The same applies to how children experience their online worlds.
Rather than seeing children’s experiences online as separate and distinct from what happens offline,
it is important that the interaction and intersection between what happens online, and what happens
offline, is recognized. It is similarly important to recognize that even the distinction between offline
1
Global Kids Online is an “international research project that aims to generate and sustain a rigorous cross-national evidence
base around children’s use of the internet.” See http://globalkidsonline.net/about/ for more information, including a list of
participating countries.
2
An overview of the sample and the methodology used for PKO can be found at the end of this summary document. More
detail of the PKO study can be found in the full report: UNICEF Philippines, Philippines Kids Online. The Online Experiences
of Children in the Philippines: Opportunities, Risks and Barriers. Technical Report, 2020; while the detailed methodology
guides and toolkits for the Global Kids Online study on which PKO is based can be found at http://globalkidsonline.net/
tools/
2 Philippines Kids Online

and online is largely an artificial distinction. For many children – those that have regular access to
digital technology at least - the digital space is so integrated into children’s worlds that it is almost
impossible to separate relationships, activities, risks and opportunities that occur offline, and online.
Much of the focus on children’s digital experiences focuses on the potential negative aspects,
specifically the risks that exist for children online. It is important to recognize the Internet and
technology more broadly present a wealth of opportunities and benefits for children, while at
the same time presenting many risks that
may jeopardise the wellbeing and safety of Much of the focus on children’s digital
children. However, not all risks equate or end experiences focuses on the potential
in harm; not is it desirable to eliminate all negative aspects, specifically the risks.
risks. There is now substantial evidence that It is important to recognize that the
some risk is necessary in order for children to
internet and technology present a
learn how to develop the appropriate skills,
wealth of opportunities and benefits for
tools and decision-making to safely navigate
children.
and mitigate risks they may encounter.3 It is
equally important to acknowledge that risks
do not necessarily equate to harms. Risks is
the probability, not the realisation of harm;
harms refer to actual physical, psychological
or sexual hurt or injury that may be caused as
a result of an incident occurring. It is important
to understand the risks that children encounter
online, to support children in learning the
skills to manage and mitigate those risks,
and to prevent harm from occurring. It is
also important that the opportunities that
exist online are fully utilised and realised
by children. These distinctions all guide the
analysis of the data collected in PKO, and the A young girl child, sister of a victim of sexual abuse, uses a cellphone
recommendations that are proposed based at her home in a poor community in the Philippines. © UNICEF
on the data. Philippines/2019/SNoorani
3
Livingstone, Sonia (2014) Developing social media literacy: how children learn to interpret risky opportunities on social
network sites. Communications, 39 (3). pp. 283-303. ISSN 0341-2059, and Staksrud, Elisabeth and Livingstone, Sonia (2009)
Children and online risk: powerless victims or resourceful participants? Information, communication and society, 12 (3). pp.
364-387. ISSN 1369-118X

Findings
The study explored six distinct thematic areas: Access to technology and the Internet; Opportunities
and Practice; Children’s Online World (Ecology); Digital Skills; Risks (including sexual risks) and
harms; and Protective Factors (including that that rest within peers, family, schools and communities).
Key findings from each of these themes are presented below.
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has had a profound impact on the way that
children use the Internet, specifically the length of time they may spend online,
and the resulting levels of risk to which they may be exposed. The PKO study
took place prior to the onset of the pandemic, and it is to be expected that the
length of time that children spend online during the pandemic has increased
significantly, as children are forced to turn online for most of their entertainment,
connections, and for e-learning. Where, and how, children access the Internet
is also likely to change, with children generally unable to use Internet cafés or
Pisonet cafés to go online, forcing even more children online using smartphones.
Similarly, the number of children globally exposed to online risks of different
forms have been shown to increase during the lockdowns resulting from the
pandemic. The true nature of these risks, the degree to which the number
of risks has increased, and the extent to which more reports (and greater
awareness of and access to reporting systems) are made, and how the trajectory
of online risks will change after the pandemic, will only emerge over time
Girls practice their lessons during a computer literacy class at a dormitory and national training school for girls in a city in Metro Manila,
Philippines.©UNICEF Philippines/2016/SNoorani

The age at which children in the Philippines first go online is, on average, 10 years old, and they
spend on average just under two hours (116 minutes) a day online.
While it is difficult to say, without longitudinal data, whether the age that children in the Philippines
first go online is changing, it does appear that more younger children are reporting going online
at a younger age than older children. This has implications for the age at which conversations on
online safety and what may be appropriate and inappropriate for children to be accessing or doing
online, are had with children. It also suggests that younger children – including those at primary
school - should also be taught the technical skills, and digital citizenship, that may be required to
ensure their wellbeing. It is also important in determining the nature of support and intervention that
may be required from parents or caregivers, in ensuring that children stay safe. There is evidence to
show that, for example, parental monitoring and filtering software has limited to no impact on older
children’s safety, it may have some impact on enhancing younger children’s safety.4
Older children tend to spend longer online every day, on average, than younger children, suggesting
that older children are allowed more space and time by their parents or caregivers and have greater
access to devices and data. As noted in the text box above, this may have changed through the
course of 2020 with the lockdown and restriction of movement outside of homes for populations all
over the world, including the Philippines.5
Children most commonly access the Internet on their smartphone, while at home, but many also
frequent both libraries, and Pisonet cafés to go online, which together account for the second and
third most common place of access.
While girls most commonly go online at home, boys are more likely than girls to frequent Pisonet
cafés. Where children access the Internet has implications for the nature of support and oversight
that is available to them, and from whom. It may also provide an indication of the levels of privacy
from particularly parental supervision that they may have. The fact that children most commonly go
online via the smartphone suggests limits, already identified in much of the international literature,
that approaches to online safety through parental supervision and monitoring, presents. It also
provides insight into types of activities that children can engage in online within different spaces.
While smartphones are perhaps best suited to communication and connecting with others, for
gaming purposes, desktops, such as those offered in Pisonet cafés (many of which offer advanced
graphics capabilities, and superior Internet bandwidth) are far superior to those available on mobile
devices. This is particularly relevant where less than one in ten children have access to gaming
consoles such as PlayStation or Xboxes. It may also be one reason that more boys frequent Pisonet
cafés than girls, as more boys report playing games. Children are also able to engage online without
any supervision while in public spaces such as Pisonet cafés, which no doubt offers an additional
draw for many children to such facilities. Pisonet café’s also offer relatively affordable Internet
4
European Commission DG Communications Networks, Content & Technology. Benchmarking of parental control tools
for the online protection of children. 2017. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/benchmarking-
parental-control-tools-online-protection-children
5
See UNICEF Innocenti, Coronavirus and Children Online, 6 May 2020. Available at https://www.unicef-irc.org/files/
documents/d-4126-LMO1_BRIEF_FINAL.pdf

access, with an hour and 40 minutes costing on average PhP20. To a much lesser degree, children,
particularly those from lower income households, also use limited duration free Wi-Fi available in
schools, coffee shops, and malls. Close to five in ten children in rural areas rely on free Wi-Fi.
Social media dominates children’s Internet use.
Children rate social media platforms as their most used online applications, with Facebook their
favourite, followed by YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. This broadly reflects trends elsewhere in
the region, where Facebook is almost ubiquitous amongst children who go online.6 More girls than
boys in the Philippines report using Facebook and Instagram. Nine out of ten girls use Facebook,
compared to eight out of ten boys, while one in five girls use Instagram compared to a little over
one in ten boys. It is noticeable that children in the Philippines tend to equate the Internet with social
media, rather that viewing social media as one distinct aspect to being online and the Internet. It also
reflects the dominant role that social media has assumed in children’s world.7
While most children in the Philippines generally have a good time or fun when online, few children
think that there are a lot of good things on the Internet that are good for children their age.
Most children going online tend to have a good time either sometimes or all the time. However, more
girls than boys, and younger children compared
to older children, feel they never have a good
time. While it is positive that most children enjoy Children in the Philippines usually
going online, it is cause for concern that only use “Internet” and “social media”
three in ten children feel that there are a lot of interchangably, equating the two terms.
good things for children their age online. These This reflects the dominant role that social
media plays in childrens internet use.
feelings may reflect both negative experiences
of children they have personally had online or
reflect adult or peer narratives that emphasise
negative aspects and experiences online over positive. It may also reflect the fact that children feel
that the content itself that they encounter online is unsuitable for children their age, referring to
educational or entertainment content. The fact that despite most children feeling there is insufficient
good or positive things that exist online for them, most still have a good time, possibly reflects that
children may be better positioned that is often assumed to process and manage the lack of positive
content or experiences online. It may also reflect the types of online activities that children are
engaging in, focusing more on social media and less on educational opportunities. Nonetheless,
this is an important finding suggesting that children either require more suitable age-appropriate
content online, or direction in finding such content where it exists, and provides an important area
for policy intervention.
6
UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office and the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention. Our Lives Online: Use of
social media by children and adolescents in East Asia - opportunities, risks and harms, UNICEF, Bangkok, 2020.
7
Like the ubiquity of Facebook in the region, this conflation of the internet with social media is also commonly noted
elsewhere in the East Asia region, as well as the South Pacific region. See UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office
and the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, Our Lives Online, 2020.

Children use the Internet for connecting with others, and for schoolwork and education, more than
for any other purposes.
Generally, children tend to interact more with their friends around their own age, than with anyone
else. Children most commonly interact with friends their own age via a messaging service or app,
when playing games, or via social networking sites, at least once a week, or more frequently,
than with any other individuals or groups of people. Friends their own age are followed by family
members, either parents or caregivers, and siblings, as the people children are most likely to interact
with online. Importantly, while perceptions amongst adults often tend to children being constantly
connected to their friends, very few children in the Philippines report being constantly connected,
in contact almost all the time or even several times a day, with their friends, family or others they
connect with online.8
Entertainment, specifically watching their favourite tv shows, or music videos, followed by online
gaming, is the third most common use of the Internet for children in the Philippines.
Eight out of one hundred children interact regularly with someone they met online who falls outside
of any of their community, when playing games; six in one hundred interact regularly with someone
they first met online via a social network site or app.
The concept of “stranger danger” – the potential risk and harms that children might encounter
speaking to a stranger online, still dominates many of the fears that adults have regarding children’s
online safety. While findings from elsewhere show that the greatest risks to children often come
from those known to them, either family or community members, it may still be reassuring to know
that the vast majority of children do not interact regularly with people that might be considered
strangers online.9 When this does happen, it is often through online gaming, which commonly
tends to involve, by design, other players from all over the world.
One in two children report having used the Internet for schoolwork at least every week to almost
all the time, and more girls, than boys, reported regular use of the Internet for schoolwork.
This emphasises the important value that being Education and schoolwork are amongst
online presents for children, as being connected the most common reported uses of the
(and having the requisite skills to successfully Internet for children:
navigate the online space in order to access “It (the internet) adds knowledge about
the educational resources that exist online) is many things…like finding answers to
becoming increasingly essential in equipping assignments, (and) how to do research”.
children with the knowledge and skills they need
to realise their full potential. It is also of note (Girl, 12 years old, Quezon City)
given the somewhat limited access to technology
8
Like the length of time that children spend online, and how and where they access the internet, the COVID-19 pandemic may
have impacted on how connected children perceive themselves as being and may change again following the pandemic
into 2021 and beyond.
9
Wolak, Janis; Evans, Lindsey; Nguyen, Stephanie; and Hines, Denise A. (2013) Online Predators: Myth versus Reality, New
England Journal of Public Policy: Vol. 25: Iss. 1, Article 6. Available at http://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol25/iss1/6; and
Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K., & Ybarra, M. (2008) American Psychologist, 63, 111-128. Copyright APA.

within schools, identified both through this study and elsewhere, and given that educators were
identified by learners as themselves having limited technology and Internet skills. Older children,
and boys, tend to use digital technology while at school for making presentations, writing online,
making pictures or videos, checking information online, doing group work, chatting online, and
joining online discussions, more than younger children, or girls; more girls, however, use the
Internet specifically for school work. While it is likely that older children have developed greater
skills, and have more access, to technology and the Internet than younger children, it is important
to note the gender difference in utilisation of technology for schoolwork, and an emphasis may be
required to increase both access to and skills for digital technology, for girls within the Philippines,
while increasing boys use of the Internet for school work. There is no precise age at which children
should be introduced to technology and digital tools within the classroom. However, as children are
increasingly going online at a younger and younger age, both globally and within the Philippines,
it is likely that acquiring these skills at a primary school level will likely increase the educational
opportunities and benefits that children are able to realise.
Nearly one in two children in the Philippines say they learned something new online in the past
month.
Related to the use of the Internet for education, the Internet also serves as a vast repository for
knowledge. Almost one in two children in the Philippines have learnt something new online, with
more girls, than boys, reporting having learnt something new in the past month. It is likely that this
is related to the fact that more girls report using the Internet for schoolwork, than boys.
Conversely, it is important to note that one third of the children report hardly ever learning something
new. While the exact reason for this is not known, it is possible that limited access to technology at
schools, combined with slow Internet connectivity (identified in literature reviewing Internet access
in the Philippines) in the country might explain this to some degree.10
It is notable that children in the Philippines rarely use the Internet for civic or community activities,
such as getting involved in community movements or political causes, or charities, or to help
someone. The degree to which this may impact on children’s own proclivity to seek help online
remains unknown, but it is conceivable that an increase in civic activities may positively increase the
chances of children seeking help for their own negative experiences online.
Four in 10 children play online games by themselves, and nearly three in 10 children play multi-
player online games.
The Internet may be most commonly used (if not indispensable) for schoolwork, but entertainment,
including gaming remains a major drawcard. Online gaming is appealing not only for the pure
entertainment factor, but also in that it opens the opportunities to interact with people from all over
the world, online, combining the possibilities of expanding what are often quite constrained and
small worlds for children, with the competitiveness and entertainment aspects of gaming.
10
The Speedtest Global Index 2020 ranks Philippines 106 out of 174 countries in terms of internet speeds. https://www.
speedtest.net/global-index

Many children are more comfortable to be themselves online, than in person.
Nearly four in 10 children say it is easier to be themselves online than in face-to-face interactions.
The Internet provides an important, and often safe, space for children to explore their own identity
particularly when living in societies or households that restrict or limit the opportunity to do so
without fear of judgement or discrimination. The Internet clearly provides that opportunity for many
children in the Philippines. In such cases, it is even more important that the Internet is a safe space
for children. Yet, while many children feel they can truly be themselves online, most children do
not feel that the Internet is a safe place for them, stressing the importance of targeted policy and
programming intervention to enhance children’s feeling of safety.
Fewer than one in two children feel safe using the Internet.
That the minority of children in the Philippines The Internet provides many children in the
feel safe using the Internet is in itself significant, philippines with the space to explore their
given that most children still have fun when they own identity in safety:
go online. Only one in five children feel that it is “I can show my true self, there are no
very true that they feel safe, while slightly more rules”.
feel it is somewhat true for them. The feelings of
unsafety perhaps reflect the large proportion of (Boy (Gay), 15 years old, manila)
children who feel that there are not a lot of good
things for them online. More boys than girls
report that they feel safe online. These feeling of safety, or unsafety, may be impacted by direct
adverse experiences online, by experiences of their friends, or informed by the messaging and
narratives around them that the Internet is not a safe place. The absence of feeling safe may impact
negatively on how children use the Internet, and the degree to which they are able to realise the
full range of opportunities that exist for them online. It must be noted that there are two aspects
to online safety – the realisation of safety, and the perception of safety; both are equally important
in ensuring children reap the full benefit of everything the Internet and digital technology have to
offer. It is thus important that in ensuring that digital technology is safe for children, and that they
are equipped with the necessary skills to keep safe online, and to effectively manage situations they
may encounter that are risky, this is not done in a way that promotes fear, or inhibits or compromises
their enjoyment and realisation of the opportunities that exist for them online.
The perception of safety refers to how safe children feel online, and may be informed by other’s
experiences, what they are told or see in the media or around them, as much as their own experiences.
While children may be relatively safe, if they do not feel safe, they are less likely to engage in all the
opportunities that exist, and explore the internet and digital technology to it’s fullest. The realisation
of safety refers to how safe children actually are, and stay, online.

The majority of children show their face on their profile, and many show both their address, and full
body photos.
Despite many not feeling safe, and many children reporting that they know what information to keep
private, children commonly reveal personal data and information online, through their profiles and
their social media presence. Girls are more likely than boys to reveal their face, and to keep their
profiles public. This apparent discrepancy between perceived knowledge of data privacy steps, and
what is revealed in practice, together with a common feeling of unsafety, may reflect the tension
and pressures that children often feel to be popular online and attract followers, while knowing
that doing so may put their safety and well-being at harm. It may illustrate a lack of translation of
knowledge and awareness into everyday behaviour change, or simply be an over-estimation by
children themselves of their own skills and awareness of data privacy and protection, a scenario that
has been encountered elsewhere in the East Asia and Pacific region and globally.11 The apparent
contradiction may also be a combination of these factors, which children tending to over-estimate
their knowledge of safety and privacy, while in fact having a relatively superficial knowledge, and
also wanting to reap the benefits of expanding networks and meting new people online.
One in ten children accepting friends request from anyone, whether known to them, their friends
or family. These people could be absolute strangers to the child. Children are more likely to accept
friend requests from someone if they have some friends in common, with almost one in five children
reporting they would usually accept such request, while one in three children report that they usually
only accept friend request if they know the person making the requests. Only one in 100 children
block strangers when they receive friend or contact requests from them.
It is not uncommon for children to have multiple Facebook, or other social media, accounts.
Having multiple social media accounts on a single platform does not itself constitute a risk, although
how those accounts are managed by increase certain risks. In total only one in ten children have
two Facebook accounts, while just 6 percent have three or more accounts. Children have multiple
accounts for several reasons: to keep some information private, to be shared only amongst friends
and peer networks, or to keep accounts that are used for school or educational purposes, separate
from those that are more social, or used for hobbies and interests. While having multiple accounts
may serve very practical purposes for children in terms of interests and keeping private and public
conversations and personas separate, they can also present some risks for children. Where parents
or caregivers may feel that they are aware of what their children are doing online through friending
them on Facebook for example, this may create a false sense of security should the child have another
private account of which their parents are unaware. It is also of note that while the minimum age
Facebook allows for an account is 13 years, three quarters (73.2%) of children aged nine to 11 in the
Philippines have a Facebook account; of these only one ten created their account without changing
any information about themselves, while most had their accounts created by family members, or
changed information about themselves.
Children’s digital skills can be assessed in terms of their operational, information browsing, social,
and creative skills.
11
See for example, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office and the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, Out Lives
Online, 2020.

Children in the Philippines generally tend to know the more basic and common functions of surfing
and consuming online content, but are yet to fully take advantage of the creative and learning, or
educational, opportunities of the Internet, or to develop appropriate skills that allow them to do so.
In terms of operational skills, while half of the children in the Philippines know how to save a photo
they find online, only three in ten know how to change their privacy settings, one quarter know how to
change their network settings, and one in ten know a programming language. Information browsing
skills were generally slightly higher, with one in four children knowing how to find a website they
had previously visited, and to easily choose the best phrase for searches. Only slightly fewer found
it easy to check whether information they found online was true; a particularly important skills as
mis- and dis-information spreads online.
More than one in five children also reported ending up on websites without knowing how they got
there.
This is particularly significant in light of the frequency of pop-ups and links to adult-content that
appear on many seemingly innocuous sites. Being directed through pop-ups on websites or within
games or other aps, may also result in children being inadvertently exposed to adult content,
whether sexual, gambling, or other age-inappropriate material. It is also important to note this and
to better understand where these pop-ups or links are being encountered, as most commonly-used
browsers include functionality that prevent pop-ups, the activation of which would protect children
from being exposed to these diversions to unwanted sites. The inclusion of these pop-ups and links
within commercial apps and games should also be raised with industry and app-developers, as part
of their obligations to keep children safe online.
Few children reported being well-versed in creative online skills.
One in three knew how create something new from music or videos they had found online, while
even fewer knew how to edit or make basic changes to online content others had created, or how to
design a website. This picture suggests that children in the Philippines remain largely consumers of
content online, rather than fully taking advantage of the creative and educational opportunities that
being connected presents, or developing the more technical and advanced skills that are increasingly
required entering into the formal and informal
employment arena. Online risks, and the potential for
resultant harms, are best understood
The levels of skills, particularly technical and within the broader context of children’s
operational skills (including activating privacy offline sensation-seeking and risk-taking
settings, or deleting contacts or friends) have behaviour and protective and resilience
implications too, for how children manage risks factors that serve to mitigate and minimize
that they may encounter online, and what steps those risks and harms.
they take in mitigating those risks.

The risks that children encounter online, and how children navigate those risks, and as well as how
they cope and seek support and assistance, are best understood within a broader context of offline
risk and protective factors.
Few children in the Philippines report engaging regularly in risk-taking behaviour (offline), with less
than one in ten children reporting having got really drunk, missed lessons without their parents
knowledge, having sexual intercourse, or being in trouble with the police over the past year.
Risk-taking, when it does happen, is generally higher amongst boys than girls. Engaging in sensation-
seeking activities is slightly more common, although less than one in five children report that they
often do dangerous things for fun or do exciting things even if they are dangerous.
Slightly more children engage in risk-taking behaviour online than offline. One in five children have
actively sought out new friends or contacts online (a relatively small percentage given that meeting
people online is one major drawcard of being online), or have chosen to share, either through direct
messaging or on a social media site, personal stories, such as photos or videos of themselves or
clothes or other stuff of theirs online, thus making some aspects of their personal life public.
Most children in the Philippines have not encountered risks, sexual or otherwise, online in the past
year.
However, one in four children in the Philippines It is important when seeking to

have encountered sexual images online, while understand children’s experiences of
one in seven have received sexual messages in sexual contact and content online, that
the past year. One in five report that something wanted experiences be differentiated from
has happened at least once over the past year that unwanted sexual contact, or content.
upset or bothered them online.
One in seven children have also at least once met someone offline they first got to know online over
the past year.
Girls were most likely to meet with another girl like them who they first met online, while both boys
and girls commonly met with a person they had only met online but who was already known to their
friends or relatives. However, two in five children met with someone they first met online who was
totally unknown to them or anyone they know, and a similar percentage of children personally met
with someone older than them. One in five children who had met someone online before meeting
them face-to-face reported meeting a LGBT person, which may be related to limited opportunities in
other environments to meet others of shared gender identity.
Most children in the Philippines had not encountered sexual content, or messages of a sexual
nature, that they did not want.
It is important, when seeking to understand children’s experiences of sexual content and contact
online, to differentiate between wanted or desired experiences (such as when children might
actively seek out sexual content, or engage in a consensual desired sexual relationship with an
age-appropriate peer), and unwanted sexual contact. While the fact that the minority of children

in the Philippines had encountered unwanted sexual contact is itself positive, it is still important
to understand the experiences of those who had encountered such unwanted sexual content or
solicitation. A little more than one in ten (13.1%) of children reported they had seen or received a
sexual message, video or image that they did not want, with slightly more boys than girls reporting
having received such messages. Only slightly fewer reported having received an email or a message
containing a link to an X-rated site. More boys than girls reported being sent emails or messages
containing sexual content that they did not want.
Fewer children have been directly approached by someone else to provide some form of sexual
content relating to themselves. When this has happened, more boys than girls have been asked for
sexual content. A little over one in ten children report having been asked to talk about sexual acts
with someone online when they did not want to, while 7.9 percent of children report having been
asked for a photo or video of their private parts by someone online. A similar percentage of children
report having been asked to do something sexual on the Internet when they did not want to or have
been asked for sexual information about themselves. Importantly, boys are as vulnerable as girls to
unwanted sexual contact.
The most common source of unwanted sexual contact online for children in the Philippines, is a
family member of the child.
Of particular concern is that when any of these forms of unwanted sexual contact have occurred
it is an adult in the child’s own family who is most commonly cited as being responsible for this
unwanted request, rather than peers or strangers. This challenges not only many of the common
assumptions surrounding different forms of online child sexual abuse, but also has importance for
both prevention and response initiatives. When the unwanted sexual contact came from someone
other than a family member, it was still more likely to be from someone known by the child, such
as a romantic partner, than from a stranger, with just 5% of those who had experienced unwanted
contact reporting it originated with someone they had met online.
Very few children who experiences any form of unwanted sexual attention or contact, sought help
or assistance for their experience.
Most children in the Philippines reported that the last time something happened online that upset
them, they just ignored it and hoped it went away. One in five deleted any messages from the person
involved, and the same number stopped using the Internet for a while. Less than one in ten children
reported the problem or the person on the relevant account or platform. It is not unusual for children
to speak to their peers and friends about both their positive and negative online experiences. Children
in Philippines broadly reflect this trend, with one in two children speaking to a friend around their
age, and another third speaking to another classmate, or mother and or father, the last time they
encountered something that bothered then online.
These trends highlight the need to strengthen the capacity of peers and children of the same or similar
age in how best to support their friends when encountering risky and potentially harmful online
experiences, as well as caregivers and parents, and other family members. They also emphasise the
need for a ready and accessible psycho-social support service that responds timeously to reports,
that children are aware of and feel confident to utilize.

Research shows that parent’s mediation of their children’s interaction with digital
technology may be enabling, or restrictive. each approach impacts on children’s
development of appropriate skills and knowledge required to both stay safe,
and take advantage of opportunities, online. Enablng mediation refers to active
strategies such as talking to a child as to what they do online, and encouraging
activities as well as giving advice; restrictive mediation refers to restricting or
banning activities, or supervising children on any long list of activities.
(Livingstone, Sonia & Byrne, Jasmina (2018). Parenting in the Digital Age. The
Challenges of Parental Responsibility in Com-parative Perspective p. 19-30 in Giovanna
Mascheroni, Cristina Ponte & Ana Jorge (eds.) Digital Parenting. The Challenges for
Families in the Digital Age. Göteborg: Nordicom.)
The home, school and community environments in which children live may play an important role
in equipping children with the skills and capacities to successfully navigate difficulties and risks they
encounter online and off; more directly, they may also support children with the successful skills to
manage and protect themselves online, or become ‘digitally resilient’.
Most children in the Philippines feel that their parents or caregivers provide guidelines for them,
support them, and are accessible for them to talk to about things that go on in the lives.
More than half of the children in the Philippines find it easy or very easy to speak to their parent
about things that upset them. The majority felt that their parents usually set rules for them about
what they do at home, and for what they can do outside of the home. Approximately seven out of
ten children feel that it is very true, or a fairly true, that their family really try to help them, while a
little more than one in two feel it is fairly or very true that someone in their family listen to what they
say. These provide an important foundation on which to develop positive parent-child relationships
and communications around their online or digital experiences.
Research shows that parent’s mediation of their children’s interaction with digital technology may be
enabling, or restrictive. Each approach impacts on children’s development of appropriate knowledge
and skills required to both stay safe, and make the most of the opportunities, online, differently.
On the whole, children in the Philippines feel that their parents or caregivers practice more restrictive
mediation with them than enabling, preferring to try and restrict and monitor their child’s Internet use
than speaking to them about what they do online, and spending time with them online, or teaching
them appropriate skills. However, parents tended not to engage consistently with the children in any
form, either enabling or restricting, their Internet use, perhaps influenced in part by the digital skills
of the parents or caregivers themselves.

Schools currently play very little role, either through the formal curriculum or through teacher
mediation and intervention, in supporting children online, or in facilitating the development of
online skills.
School, through both teachers and the formal curriculum, can also play an important role in mediating
children’s use of technology and the Internet. However, few children reported that their teachers
often or very often assisted them with something they found difficult to do or explained why some
websites were good or bad. Slightly more children reported that their teachers suggested ways to
behave towards others online either often or very often or spoke to them in general terms about
what they could do if something happened online that bothered them. This reflects a generally
passive engagement, where it happens, from teachers and schools in supporting children’s Internet
use.
The limited role of schools in developing children’s use of technology and the Internet is also
reflected in the fact that one in four children never make school presentations online, and one in
three never check the schools websites for information, or chatted online with the school or their
teachers. This suggests that even where schools are connected to the Internet, and have digital
technology readily available, it is likely that many teachers simply do not have the requisite skills or
knowledge to engage with learners online, or to support them in the development of their technical
and digital skills.
Children speak to their friends and classmates more about their online experiences, than teachers
or other adults.
There was greater engagement and support from peers, with approximately three in ten reporting
their peers sometimes suggested ways to use the Internet safely, and encouraged them to explore
and learn things on the Internet, while one quarter reported their friends helped them when they
found something difficult to do online.
This suggests that even though active engagement with peers about what happens online is not
consistently common, children speak to their friends more about things that bother them online,
and how to do things online, as well as general online behaviour, than either their teachers or their
parents or caregivers, or the teachers. As such, peers offer a valuable entry point for conversations
around digital safety and well-being.

Children victims of online sexual violence play inside the children’s center in Cebu City, Philippines. Over one million children are victims
of commercial sexual exploitation around the world each year. The growing ease of travel, which has lured child-sex predators into less
developed countries including the Philippines, has made children more vulnerable to this modern form of slavery. UNICEF works with
communities and the general public to raise awareness about the problem and address attitudes, norms and practices that are harmful to
children. © UNICEF Philippines/2016/JMaitem
Recommendations
Several recommendations are proposed. These recommendations relate to both policy and
legislation, and intervention and programmatic responses.
At a policy level:
 Formulate a National Information and CommunicationsTechnology (ICT) policy for education,
and a related development framework to serve as guideposts and policy benchmarks for
implementing agencies.
The study illustrates generally low levels of digital skills of children, parents, and teachers;
low appreciation of the opportunities presented by the digital platform for digital creativity,
participation, and agency; disparate access and connectivity; and lack of a clear accountability
and development framework that work toward not only protecting children but also ensuring
that children, their parents, families, teachers, and communities are able to optimize the
great benefits of Internet use. A coherent national ICT policy and development framework
that concurrently promotes and invests in the opportunities and benefits that can be realised
by children online, and provides a framework for keeping children safe online, would provide

a solid foundation for government, industry and civil society to start to address the current
gaps relating to children’s online capacities. Such a policy should include the involvement of
at least, the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education, the Departments
of Social Work and Development, Science and Technology, Information and Communications
Technology, the Council for the Welfare of Children, and the National Privacy Commission.
 Revise the basic education curriculum to incorporate digital skills and citizenship for children.
The next stage of basic education curriculum revisions should include components enhancing
digital skills of children and values integration across learning areas about the benefits,
opportunities, and risks of Internet use. This study found that while children have access
to the Internet, not all benefit and enhance their digital skills, especially those in rural areas
and in low to middle-income households. In effect, this redirects teacher in-service training
and professional development to understanding, being aware of, and utilizing technology
integration for teaching and learning.
Related to this, digital citizenship (including online safety) should be integrated into both
college curriculum and teacher-training curriculum (both formal and in-service).
The study, framed within the broader literature, reflects relatively low levels of digital literacy
amongst educators. This limitation has been recognized by government. Teacher training
curriculum should incorporate both digital technology and the psycho-social aspects of
online safety, and conversely, identifying risks and indicators of potential harms resulting
from negative online experiences, amongst children. For higher education, include topics
in syllabus design—especially in Science, Technology & Society and in the College General
Education curriculum—on the positive and potential risks of the Internet. These should draw
on recent evidence, both global and regional, that presents both opportunities and potential
harms.
 Establish an E-learning Outreach Program in select barangays.

The PKO study shows that many children in more remote and rural communities have limited
access to digital technology and are more likely to report slow Internet speeds than those in
urban areas. An e-learning outreach programme can provide computer and Internet literacy
particularly for lower-income and marginalised households or populations, indigent children,
OSYs, and elementary pupils. Such an initiative should be provided for in the national
policy and development framework proposed above, and should include the participation
of parents, local government units (LGUs), and school authorities, in order to ensure that
even those children with limited resources, and who are most commonly marginalised and
exclude from access to ICTs, reap the benefits and gain relevant skills.
 Enforce the regulation and accountability of Pisonet cafés to ensure they are “child-friendly”
establishments.
While Internet cafés are not unique to the Philippines, the Pisonet café has assumed a
particularly important place in young people’s digital environment within the Philippines.
PKO shows that these are the second most frequently place of Internet access for children,
and as such they occupy an important position with an almost unique opportunity to both
contribute to the enhancement of young people’s digital skills and ensuing their online safety

and well-being. Steps should be taken to maintain barangay tanod’s visibility in Pisonet
cafés and enlist local partners (such as the Sangguniang Kabataan) to provide peer support
and promote safe Internet use.
At an Intervention and Programmatic level:

 Incorporate digital citizenship and online safety into both universal, and targeted, parenting
support programmes, where these exist.
The study highlighted the limited digital skills and literacy of parents and caregivers, and
engagement between parents and caregivers with children in the household about their digital
and online activities. At the same time, children thought that their parents and caregivers
wanted the best for them and provided appropriate guidelines for their behaviour. This
provides a solid foundation from which parents and children can start to have appropriate
conversations about their online activities and experiences. However, these conversations
on premised on parents and caregivers having the requisite skills themselves.
At a universal level, pre- and peri-natal parenting services can be utilised to distribute basic
guidelines on understanding age-appropriate screen interaction, and basic online safety
messages, including those that relate to child data protection and privacy. At a more targeted
levels, parenting programmes can include online safety as a core component of programme
material and delivery, linking strongly as it does to positive parent-child bonding and
communication, for example.
 Identify high-risk communities and populations for targeted caregivers and parent’s digital
literacy training.
These sites should be identified on the basis of objective economic and social criteria
for (including rates of offline and online violence, and economic and social households
stressors) and offer targeted parenting interventions focusing on digital literacy and online
safety supported by government and civil society partnerships.
 Build the capacity of educators at the school level, and within schools, to identify the
signs of online abuse and exploitation, cyber-bullying and other forms of negative online
experiences that may impact adversely on children.
In addition to building the skills and capacities of educators to identify trauma, interventions
should also ensure that educators are equipped with the appropriate skills to support children
and provide service referrals where necessary. This should be focused on behavioural and
emotional symptoms as much as on the technology itself.
 Invest in and support school and community-based evidence-informed peer and bystander
support interventions.
The PKO study shows that peers – friends and classmates of children – are the group that
children first turn to when encountering negative online experiences or content, and to
whom children most talk about what happens online. As such, they offer an important entry
point, and asset, to influence peer online behaviour and knowledge. While there is already
a growing body of evidence of what works in peer and bystander intervention programmes

for cyberbullying, those developed and tested for offline forms of child sexual abuse and
prevention should also be explored.12 There is a growing body of global evidence of what
works in peer interventions, and this should be drawn upon, together with existing evidence
from the Philippines-based programming.
One mechanism to deliver peer interventions could be through School Child Protection
Committees. Such an approach could meld interventions that target both educators and
peers to provide support to children at-risk within the school, or simply to provide support
to peers on decision-making, impulse control and managing adverse online experiences.
There is already some evidence regarding the efficacy of such approaches, such as the Safe
Schools for Teens intervention, which has shown positive results in addressing child sexual
abuse, within the Philippines, although it has not been tested for online child sexual abuse
or other online experiences. Such an approach merges support for peers and integrates
targeted modules into school Health and Values Education subjects of the school curriculum,
thus providing both curriculum-based interventions and peer-support interventions.13
 Design a learning programme for out-of-school youth to encourage access to digital

technology and enhance digital skills.
While most younger children in the Philippines have access to and attend primary school, out-
of-school youth (OSY) constitute a larger proportion of the child population amongst older
children. As such, they have little access to formal ICT and digital literacy programming. For
OSYs the Alternative Learning System of the Department of Education should collaborate
with the ICT industry in funding and running a learning program similar to the proposed
basic education curriculum revision.
Finally, and arguably most important, it is critical throughout all design and implementation
of all the above recommendations that children are provided a voice throughout the process
affecting them, and determining the most appropriate and desirable pathways to improve
their online experiences, opportunities and futures, online and off. The PKO study clearly
illustrates the importance of giving children a voice in sharing their own experiences,
knowledge and perceptions, and these should be included in all policy and programming
approaches aimed at keeping children in the Philippines safe online, and in realising the
wealth of opportunities and benefits that exist online.
12
See for example, Salmivalli, Christina. (2014). Participant Roles in Bullying: How Can Peer Bystanders Be Utilised in
Interventions? Theory into Practice. 53. 286-292. 10.1080/00405841.2014.947222.
13
Bernadette J. Madrid, Gilda D. Lopez, Leonila F. Dans, Deborah A. Fry, Francis Grace H. Duka-Pante, Alberto T. Muyot. Safe
schools for teens: preventing sexual abuse of urban poor teens, proof-of-concept study - Improving teachers' and students’
knowledge, skills and attitudes, Helyion, Volume 6, ISSUE 6, e04080, June 01, 2020

A young boy, victim of sexual exploitation, uses mobile phone at his home with this sibling in one of the hot spots communities in the
Philippines. © UNICEF Philippines/2019/SNoorani
About the Study

The PKO study combined a quantitative and qualitative methodology, drawing on the Global Kids
Online study. For the quantitative component, the researchers conducted a nationwide survey of
Children in the Philippines and their parents or carers. Data was collected and analysed between
2017 and 2019.
A total 160 enumerators and 20 field coordinators administered the survey in 25 selected provinces
in the Philippines. The survey has a representative sample of 2,250 children aged 9-17 years. A
total 1,873 children-respondents participated in the survey from 17 regions, 25 provinces, 147
municipalities, and 225 barangays (villages) in the country.
For the qualitative component, focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with selected
children and parents. These were held at the DLSU campus for participants from the National Capital
Region and Luzon, and in Davao City for Visayas and Mindanao participants. A total 44 children
and 35 parents participated in the FGDs, distributed based on age groups, gender, and regional
locations. The study was conducted by the Social Development Research Center of the De La Salle
University, in partnership with UNICEF Philippines and the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti. The
report was written by Patrick Burton. The study was made possible with support from the Australian
Government. .


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Philippines Kids Online

The Online Experiences of Children in the

Cover photograph: © UNICEF Philippines

Design and layout: Beetlebugs Communications, Inc.

© UNICEF Philippines 2020

Philippines Kids Online 1

A framework for understanding children’s

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Social media dominates children’s Internet use.

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Few children reported being well-versed in creative online skills.

Philippines Kids Online 11

However, one in four children in the Philippines It is important when seeking to

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 Establish an E-learning Outreach Program in select barangays.

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At an Intervention and Programmatic level:

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 Design a learning programme for out-of-school youth to encourage access to digital

Philippines Kids Online 19

About the Study

20 Philippines Kids Online

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