System Technology Institute

Bacoor Branch

The Effectiveness of Anti-Selfie Bill

As Perceived by the Students of STI College Bacoor

A Research Paper

Presented to:

Mr. Jerson G. Madrona

By:

Althea Laureen Lucis

Michael Romasanta

Rannie Russel Villanueva

Vincent Gayanilo

Adrian Leander Pesino

Kim Dionesio

Lhorraine Vasquez

October 21, 2014

Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

How important is it for you to preserve memories? Every single

day plays a role in our history. With the revolution of cameras – digital

cameras, DSLRs, smart phones, Tablets, Phablets and a like – almost

everyone can now own a piece of this equipment and capture

memories. Due to that fact, taking photos have become a part of our

daily lives – especially “Selfie”. The term has been around for more

than a decade now. But where did it all start? The usage of #selfie

first appeared on Flickr in 2004, but it took almost a decade to reach

the masses.1 It is a fact that anyone who has a camera, at one point in

their lives – from kids to oldies, celebrity or not – took selfies. In 2013,

the word “selfie” has become popular. On that same year, Oxford

University Press declared the word “selfie” as the Word of the Year for

2013 and they officially added the word to their dictionary. It means,

a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with

a smart phone or webcam and shared via social media.2 Usually, they

are flattering and made to appeal you and others. With the growing

number of Social Media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Path, etc.,

sharing, distributing, inscribing, storing and posting these pictures into

a network, is an instant communication of where we are, who we think

we are and what we’re doing at the moment. All these have made

available with easy access to almost everyone. Moreso, Apps are

designed to help us capture those precious moments of ourselves at

our convenience. Even the inventions of Selfie Stick or Monopod,

Shutterball, The Selfie Shutter, Cellfy Stic make it easier to snap a

selfie.

1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/selfie-history-infographic_n_4101645.html2 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/selfie

Selfie in the Philippines, selfie is no longer an alien word. In fact,

in March 2014, 3 Philippine cities were included in TIME Magazine’s top

10 selfie-takers in the world. Makati and Pasig topped the most selfie-

takers with 258 selfie-takers per 100,000 people. Cebu City is in top 1

with 99 selfies per 100,000 people.

Chapter II

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Selfies are usually done in the name of good fun. But sadly, they

do not always end up well. A few selfie-related incidents have been

recorded and proved that a simple selfie-taking activity can be fatal. In

Philippines, a 15-year old boy borrowed the gun of his uncle to take a

selfie. With a camera in one hand and a gun on the other, the boy

accidentally pulled the trigger instead of clicking the camera button.

There was also a schoolgirl who suffered a fatal fall down stairs while

taking a selfie.

A House Bill 4807 or commonly known as Anti-Selfie Bill is now in

Congress and is now causing outrage. However, in the Filipino context,

especially to those politicians who drafted the said bill, “selfie” is not

just about taking pictures of you. The Bill seeks to prevent the act of

taking photos of people without their permission. This Bill defines

“intrusion of personal privacy” as ”any person who willfully intrudes

into the personal privacy of another, without the consent of that

person and with the intent to gain or profit therefrom, shall be civilly

liable to the offended party.”

This research paper seeks to answer the following questions:

Will the students of STI Bacoor be in favor of the Anti-Selfie Bill?

How will this Bill affect the daily lives of the students?

Does this Bill deserve to be a law?

How will the student react if such Bill is passed?

Name: _________________________

Age: ____ Gender: ________

1. Have you heard of the

Anti-Selfie Bill?

o Yes

o No

2. Are you in favor of passing

such Bill?

o Yes

o No

3. How often do you take a

selfie?

o Once a day

o More than once

daily

o Once a week

o Once a month

4. In what Social Media site/s

do you normally posts

these selfie photos?

o Facebook

o Twitter

o Instagram

o Flicker

o Tumbler

o Others, please

specify:

___________________

5. How often do you post

your selfies?

o Once a day

o More than once

daily

o Once a week

o Once a month

6. If the bill is passed, how

will this affect your daily

life?

o I don’t care

o Not really

o Greatly affected

7. Do you think, this Bill

deserves to be a law?

o Yes

o No

8. If no, why?

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

Chapter III

Review of Related Literature

Based on previous reports, if you’re one of those persons who

like taking pictures of random thing then posting it to your social

media account, well you better be careful.

According to Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, there's a bill in

Congress that seeks to stop taking photos of people without their

permission.

House Bill 4807 or the Protection against Personal Intrusion Act is

now up for 3rd reading in plenary. It defines "intrusion of personal

privacy" as "any person who willfully intrudes into the personal privacy

of another, without the consent of that person and with the intent to

gain or profit there from, shall be civilly liable to the offended party."

HB 4807 will cause a commotion in the media industry because it

will affect citizen journalism.

Zarate said, and I quote, "HB 4807 will create a chilling effect on

media and would especially affect citizen journalism. It would punish

with civil suit taking photos, video or even audio recording anything

claimed as a personal/ family matter even of public officials and

personalities,"

"Even an innocuous selfie with public figures at the background

would be liable for 'intrusion of privacy'. This is absurd and we urge our

colleagues to reconsider," he added.

According to HB 4807, the following acts are considered an

intrusion into the personal privacy of another and shall be presumed to

have been committed with the intent to gain or profit.

a. Capturing by a camera or sound recording instrument of any

type of visual image, sound recording or other physical

impression of the person

b. Trespassing on private property in order to capture any type

of visual image, sound recording or other physical impression of

any person

c. capturing any type of visual image, sound recording or other

physical impression of a person or family activity through the use

of a visual or auditory enhancement device even when no

physical trespass has occurred, when the visual image, sound

recording or other physical impression could not have been

captured without a trespass if no enhancement device was used.

Section 4 of the bill says any person whose personal privacy was

intruded as defined may in a civil action against the person who

committed the intrusion, obtain any appropriate relief, including

compensatory damages, punitive damages, and injunctive and

declaratory relief.

Any person obtaining relief may be either the person who’s

visual or auditory impression has been captured or the owner of the

private property trespassed to capture the visual image, sound

recording or other physical impression of another.

"The fact that no visual image, sound recording or other physical

impression of a person was actually sold for gain or profit shall not be

available as a defense in any civil action or proceeding for the

enforcement of the provisions of this act," the bill explained.

The only exemption from these acts is legitimate law

enforcement activities.

The bill is authored by Congressmen Rufus Rodriguez, Maximo

Rodriguez, Jorge Almonte, Gwendolyn Garcia, Linabelle Ruth Villarica,

Lito Atienza and Leopoldo Bataoil.

The critics said that implementing the bill will cause

complications on press freedom and even social media.

Jose Torres Jr., board member of the Photojournalists’ Center of

the Philippines (PCP), Inc., said the bill needs to define what "intent to

gain or profit there from" means.

"It would seem that people from the media and journalists can be

targets of the proposed measure. Worthy of being emphasized is the

phrase 'with intent to gain or profit there from.' In case a complaint is

filed in court against a photo journalist, can lack of intent to gain be

used as defense?”

"It must be clearly defined what can be classified for 'gain' or

'profit.' News outfits - newspapers, magazines, television, online

publications, radio, and news wire agencies - are basically for profit

organizations. There must be clear provisions that specify that news

gathering must be exempted from this section," he added.

The group said it wants media to be exempted from the

coverage of the proposed law.

"We suggest to add the qualification 'unless this is done in the

practice of a media professional in the interest of public interest.” If we

limit Sec 3 a, Sec 3 c will then apply only to the protection of privacy

clause." The group is also pushing for a definition of "private property."

"Private property must be spelled out and defined. Public places,

cars, public transport, public buildings, among others, and individuals,

who by nature of their position or profession are classified as public

figures, cannot claim violation of privacy. Does 'personal privacy'

extends to public domain or public places in private spaces, for

instance malls, shopping centers, events venues, a luxurious resort,

among others?"

On the matter of capturing any type of visual image, the group

said this provision can affect journalists who use modern legitimate

tools of news gathering like drones with cameras or telephoto lenses.

The group proposed that news and visual storytelling that fall

into educating, warning, exposing incidents and events that will benefit

the majority of society must be exempted because interest groups can

use provisions of the law to put enterprising journalists in tough

situations.

The group also wants a corresponding provision of penalty for

grave use of authority and clear use of provisions of the law for

harassment of journalists.

"Our apprehension is based on the premise that the act being

made punishable by this proposed measure is not clearly defined to

the point that many acts can be considered 'malum prohibitum' or

conducts that constitute an unlawful act only by virtue of statute as

opposed to conduct evil in and of itself."

"We worry that this proposed measure can become a tool that

'unwilling public figures' will use to suppress press freedom,”

Soon, if by any chance, the bill will be passed, taking self shot

pictures won’t be an innocent gesture anymore. We will have to think

about that anti-selfie law before we could post our pictures.

The said bill was approved on its second reading last August 12,

2014 and I therefore quote the following statements:

“We have to carefully study this proposal since some of the

grounds constituting the violations are vague and too broad and may

constitute prior restraint and may pose further Constitutional

problems,” AKO BICOL party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe said in reaction

to HB No. 4807.

“I think we need more definitions and qualifications. [Provision]

could be broad but the discussions will clarify things,” said Baguilat

who is the chair of the Agrarian Reform panel.

On the other hand, the members of the House minority said

harsher things about the said Bill. One even said that a law on “selfie”

is a clear violation to freedom of expression and it has no place in a

civilized and democratic society.

Chapter IV

Result

Results are based on the answered survey forms by 100 STI

College Bacoor students. The survey forms are composed of 8

questions that will be further explained in this chapter.

I. Respondents

Graph of Age Brackets

II. Graph of Gender

The respondents were asked fill in a survey form with their age

and gender. As shown in table 1.1, 43% of our respondents are minors.

37% claims to in the bracket 0f 18-20 while the remaining 20% ranges

from 21 and above.

In table 1.2 shows that 53% of our respondents were male. The

remaining 47% are female. This proves that both male and female

respondents are both part of the so called “Selfie Society.”

III. Persons Aware of The Anti-Selfie Bill

Based on the table above, most of the STI College Bacoor

students are aware that the Anti-Selfie Bill exists. Still, 20% of them

claim to not know about the said bill. Some of them even asked why

the bill was created. Those who are aware were unhappy with the

government’s actions. Some stated that forming the HB No.4807 was a

waste of time.

IV. Persons in Favor of Passing the Bill

Only a small portion of the respondents were in favor of passing

the bill. 85% of them strongly disagree with the passing of the Anti-

Selfie Bill.

V. How Often the Respondents Take Selfie Photo

We asked the respondents how often they take selfies and based

on their answers 31% takes one selfie a month. The following 27%

takes a selfie once a week. 22% of them take one daily, while the

remaining 19% takes more than one selfie a day.

VI. Social Media Sites They Often Use

The data above proves that most of the students use Facebook

as their photo sharing site. 75% claims Facebook to be their widely

used site, the following 13% post their selfies in Instagram and 10%

shares their pictures through Twitter. No one seems to use Flickr and

Tumblr. The remaining 3% uses social media sites such as Viber and

Google.

VII. How Often the Respondents Post Their Selfies

In the previous graphs, data collection about how often the

respondents took selfies was asked. The graph above states how often

they post these selfies. 20% of 100 post their selfies once a day. 44%

shares their picture once a month. 35% posts their pictures weekly

while the remaining 5% seems to be addicted in taking selfies and

posting them more than once a day.

VIII. How Will It Affect the Respondent’s Life

Though most of them disagree with the Anti-Selfie Bill, 46%

doesn’t seem to care about the effects it will cause. 43% of 100 said

that it will not really affect their daily lives. The smallest portion, 11%,

will be greatly affected if such bill takes place.

IX. Does the Bill Deserve to be a Law?

“Does this Bill deserve to be a law?” we asked the respondents.

72% said no and 28% said yes. We had a follow-up question to those

respondents who answered no. “Why?” we asked. Some said that it is

a useless bill and it should not be made into a law. Some said it was

stupid and most of them said it was a waste of time. A big portion of

the respondents disagreed because it will violate their freedom of

expression.

Chapter V

Conclusion

Based on the given data above, we therefore conclude that most

of the students are aware of the Anti-Selfie Bill. We explained the said

bill to those respondents who doesn’t have a clue and they proceeded

to the next question in the survey. Only 15% were in favor of passing

the Anti-Selfie Bill and the remaining 85% are against it.

Most of the students take selfies as a daily routine and they post

the photos in their social media accounts. Facebook was chosen to be

the social media site that the students often use to share their photos.

It was followed by Instagram and Twitter. The larger portion 39% of the

respondents claims to post their selfies once a month. The following

34% said that they share their photos once weekly.

Even though a lot of them disagree with the bill, 46% of the

respondents said that it won’t affect their daily lives. 43% doesn’t care,

and the remaining 11% said it will greatly affect their lives.

71% said that the bill should not be a law and 29% said it should

be formed. Based on their opinion, such bill was useless and the

government should focus on the bigger problems our country is facing.

These innocent photos won’t change corruption and it will solve the

continuous growth of crime rate.

Recommendation

We recommend that this bill should not be furthermore

entertained. The said bill will only add additional concerns to the social

media site users. Most of the feedback from the respondents aims to

stop this bill because they think that there are more important matters

to discuss than this Anti-Selfie Bill. They should be focusing on a more

serious crime than making a law about self-taken photos. Some of the

respondents even called this bill useless, nonsense and stupid. In their

opinion, these selfies won’t affect our economy or the government.

According to them, posting these self-taken photos is one way of

expressing their feelings and is just a form of entertaining themselves

or others. The government must not focus on such things that look

personal.

As for freedom of expression, everyone has the freedom to

capture their moments through these pictures and let it serve as a

memorabilia for the future generations to see.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.wikipedia.com/anti-selfie-bill

www.blogspot.com/anitarosales/antiselfiebill

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/232370/news/nation/anti-

selfie-bil-in-process

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/selfie-history-

infographic_n_4101645.html

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/selfie

Appendices

Name: _________________________

Age: ____ Gender: ________

1. Have you heard of the Anti-Selfie Bill?

o Yes

o No

2. Are you in favor of passing such Bill?

o Yes

o No

3. How often do you take a selfie?

o Once a day

o More than once daily

o Once a week

o Once a month

4. In what Social Media site/s do you normally posts these selfie

photos?

o Facebook

o Twitter

o Instagram

o Flicker

o Tumbler

o Others, please specify: ___________________

5. How often do you post your selfies?

o Once a day

o More than once daily

o Once a week

o Once a month

6. If the bill is passed, how will this affect your daily life?

o I don’t care

o Not really

o Greatly affected

7. Do you think, this Bill deserves to be a law?

o Yes

o No

8. If no, why?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________