The Mandaue City Council passed a resolution urging the Department of Information and Communications Technology to implement facial verification for SIM registration and social media accounts to protect minors online.
Council member Jennifer Del Mar authored the proposal in response to growing safety concerns, noting that the current SIM registration system requires government IDs but lacks biometric or facial verification measures.
The resolution has been referred to the council's committee on information and communications technology, which will endorse the request to the DICT to study implementing stronger identity and age verification protocols.
THE Mandaue City Council has urged national agencies to adopt facial verification for subscriber identity module (SIM) registration and social media accounts as part of efforts to strengthen online protection for minors.
The council recently passed a resolution, calling on the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and other government agencies to study the possible implementation of facial verification to improve identity and age verification. The proposal comes as concerns over children’s online safety continue to grow following the fatal mass shooting in Tacloban City involving suspects who are minors.
The measure’s author, Councilor Jennifer Del Mar, said the proposal seeks to help authorities and service providers determine whether users are minors and limit their access to online platforms.
“We are calling on the DICT or any other agency that can help with verification. We are asking that strict face verification be implemented so we can determine a user’s age and help limit minors’ access,” Del Mar said.
Current system
The resolution has been referred to the council’s committee on information and communications technology, which will endorse it to the DICT for appropriate action.
Del Mar said the proposal asks telecommunications companies to require facial verification during SIM registration while encouraging social media platforms to adopt stronger identity verification measures for account creation.
Under the current SIM registration system, registration is completed through the online portals of telecommunications companies. Subscribers are required to provide their full name, date of birth, address, a valid government ID number, and images of the front and back of their identification card.
This process does not require facial recognition, biometric verification, or personal appearance. New SIM cards must be registered before activation, while unregistered existing SIMs were automatically deactivated after the registration deadline in 2023.
Existing law
Republic Act (RA) 11934, or the SIM Registration Act, requires public telecommunications entities to collect subscribers’ identity information and copies of valid government-issued IDs to register a SIM card. The law links the subscriber’s identity to the SIM’s international mobile subscriber identity, but it does not require biometric verification or facial matching.
The measure comes as authorities continue to confront weaknesses in the registration system, including the reported use of stolen identification cards to register SIMs and the online sale of pre-registered SIM cards. Policymakers have also discussed possible amendments that could strengthen identity verification through personal appearance, multi-factor authentication, or other safeguards, although no directive requiring those measures has been issued.
Del Mar said the proposal forms part of the City’s response to growing concerns over children’s online safety following the Tacloban incident.
She said current technology makes stronger identity verification more practical.
“With the technology now, perhaps they can do better when it comes to registration,” Del Mar said. / ABC & SHERYN MAE C. SINOY, UV INTERN