Philippines
National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-07
The Philippines has a physical adult-content age-verification duty on cinema and theater licensees, but no social-media minor-access restriction, no app-store age-verification requirement, and no age-appropriate design code.
The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board's charter (Presidential Decree No. 1986) bars a person below eighteen from admission to a moviehouse or theater screening a film the Board has classified "Restricted" or "For Adults Only", requiring proof of age where doubt exists, but this duty is not extended to an online or on-demand exhibition channel.
The Children's Television Act (Republic Act No. 8370) sets child-viewing-hour scheduling and program-quality standards for broadcast television rather than an age-verification or access-gating duty.
The Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 (Republic Act No. 9775) and the Anti-OSAEC and Anti-CSAEM Act (Republic Act No. 11930, 2022) impose reporting, blocking, and content-filtering duties on internet service providers and internet intermediaries directed at child sexual abuse material as such, rather than an age-verification or minor-access-gating duty triggered by a user's age.
The Safe Spaces Act's online provisions (Republic Act No. 11313) address gender-based online sexual harassment and carry no age-verification or minor-access duty.
01
Instruments on record
Movie and Television Review and Classification Board Charter, Admission Restriction to Adults-Only Films
In force
Presidential Decree No. 1986 (1985), Section 9
Applies to private
Section 9 makes it unlawful for a person below eighteen years of age to enter, or to misrepresent or use false evidence of age to gain admission into, a moviehouse or theater showing a motion picture the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) has classified "Restricted" or "For Adults Only". It is likewise unlawful for a theater employee to sell or accept from such a person an admission ticket to such a screening.
Where there is doubt as to a person's age, the person seeking admission must exhibit a residence certificate or other proof of age. Section 11 punishes a violation of the Decree, including this admission restriction, with imprisonment of three months and one day to one year and a fine of not less than fifty thousand pesos nor more than one hundred thousand pesos.
| Age threshold | 18 |
| Verification methods | gov id |
| Enforcement body | Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) |
Source: Full text of law