MANILA — The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a measure strengthening the country’s safeguards against online child sexual abuse and exploitation, including new provisions addressing artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content.

In a report, it said that House Bill No. 9461, or the proposed Child Online Safety and Protection Act of 2026, was approved during Tuesday’s plenary session with 284 affirmative votes.

The measure seeks to strengthen Republic Act No. 11930, or the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children and Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials Act, by expanding enforcement tools and updating legal definitions to cover emerging digital threats.

One of its key provisions expands the definition of child sexual abuse or exploitation materials to include AI-generated, synthetic, and digitally manipulated content, including deepfakes involving children.

It also criminalizes a wider range of offenses such as online grooming, sexual extortion, luring, image-based sexual abuse, and livestreamed exploitation.

Under the bill, those convicted of producing, distributing, livestreaming, or facilitating child sexual abuse materials may face life imprisonment and fines of at least P2 million.

Meanwhile, possession of such materials may be punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while knowingly accessing them may carry penalties of up to 12 years of imprisonment.

“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,” House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” G. Dy III said.

ML Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima said the measure goes beyond policy reform and serves as a moral obligation for lawmakers.

“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, sexual extortion schemes, and the circulation of material that wounds them not just once but perpetually through its redistribution online,” De Lima said.