Cybercrime law to help everybody

I want to share my opinion regarding the Cybercrime Prevention Act that is presently drawing different comments and reactions in the public arena.

I am a single mother with a 13-year-old daughter. As we all know, social media like Facebook and Twitter are practically accessible to so many people, and their contents could easily catch the attention of a universal audience, especially teenagers.

For me, social media may be helpful and advantageous in some ways. For example, I find them useful in getting in touch with my family, relatives and friends abroad. And they keep me updated on the latest trends and current news.

But later, after I really got hooked on social media, I soon realized that they have their “pitfalls” and, therefore, their use should be regulated. For it cannot be denied that there have been postings, pictures and comments meant to bully this or that person. And the Internet victim can’t do anything about it.

But now with the cybercrime law, those who will make libelous or malicious postings on the Internet will be liable under the law.

In my opinion, it is for the good of everybody that social media will now be controlled. All of us will be protected and once bullied, we have justice within our reach. All of us, especially the teenagers among us, will learn how to handle and regulate their postings, comments and tweets. We still can comment anything in the social media, but the law now prompts us to first ask ourselves—whether or not our post will hurt people—before clicking it into the Internet world.

The cybercrime law does not curtail our freedom of expression or any of our rights, it teaches us how to be well-disciplined and how to respect other people’s privacy and rights. I do not want my daughter to be a “victim” of cyberbullying, especially now that she is in her critical growing-up years, when she is most vulnerable to snide remarks from people around her.

—MARIA AURORA SJ ROMULO,

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