The Philippines’ largest fully integrated telecommunications company PLDT Inc. (PLDT) has maintained its global leadership in protecting children’s rights, ranking second overall globally among telcos assessed and scoring 9.9 out of 10 in the Global Child Forum’s Children’s Rights and Business Benchmark for the third consecutive year in 2026.
The sustained performance of PLDT and its wireless unit Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) underscores their continuing efforts to adopt the Children’s Rights and Business principles framework of UNICEF, Save the Children, and the UN Global Compact. Having identified Child Protection as a material topic, the PLDT Group integrates children’s rights considerations into its operations and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures.
As the world’s largest benchmark of its kind, the Global Child Forum works with the Boston Consulting Group to evaluate how companies address children's rights across their governance and operations in the workplace, marketplace, community, and environment.
“Our consistent global leadership in children’s rights highlights the dedication of our people in embedding children’s rights into our daily operations. PLDT and Smart continue to recognize children as key stakeholders in building a digital society and thus strive to conduct our business in a manner that respects and safeguards the rights of every child,” said PLDT and Smart Chairman and CEO Manuel V Pangilinan.
Based on the 2024 Census of Population of the Philippine Statistics Authority, 32.4% of the Philippine population are under 18 years old. Children and young people are also widely regarded as among the most active internet users, and as among the primary drivers of broadband and digital service consumption among households.
Consequently, PLDT and Smart integrate children’s rights considerations into business strategies and ESG performance. At the board level, the Governance, Nomination, and Sustainability Committee exercises oversight on the Group’s child rights policies and performance, forming part of its broader ESG framework and strategy.
Recent initiatives include PLDT and Smart’s updating of their respective policies on child safeguarding. These aim to enhance management of salient children’s rights impact areas, which cover employee welfare, product safety, use of artificial intelligence, supplier due diligence, and environmental management, among others.
Informed by actual consultations and impact assessments with Filipino teenagers, these policies draw from young people’s experiences of the benefits and risks of digital technology and incorporate how they expect telcos to safeguard online safety, as well as address parallel environmental issues, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.
To prevent risks to children online, PLDT and Smart continue to invest in a child protection platform that restricts network-level access to content harmful to children. The Group has blocked more than 2.4 million URLs linked to online sexual abuse and exploitation of children from June 2021 to August 2026.
Beyond technology solutions, PLDT and Smart uphold policies and practices that promote children’s rights in the workplace, marketplace, and community.
These include having provisions to support employees in their role as parents and caregivers through family welfare programs, extended social protection programs, the inclusion of child rights in onboarding and skilling programs. PLDT and Smart also uphold policies to protect children’s data privacy, ensure responsible marketing practices, and prevent child labor in their own operations and supply chain.
In 2025, PLDT and Smart maintained comprehensive reporting on various children’s rights indicators through their ESG reports. Highlights include achieving over 99% parental leave return to work rate and receiving zero cases of child labor in own workplace and supply chain operations. In the marketplace, the Group received zero substantiated complaints involving product safety, marketing, and labeling.
In communities where they operate, PLDT and Smart implement programs that promote children’s inclusive access to digital technology, education, internet safety, mental health awareness, and sports development.
“We continue to place children at the heart of our efforts to uphold responsible business conduct and ensure long-term profitability. By actively investing in the welfare of children today, we are also securing our future customer base and helping shape the future leaders of our country,” said PLDT and Smart Chief Sustainability Officer Melissa Vergel de Dios.
Global Child Forum bases its benchmark scores on a company’s publicly available information, systematically assessing a corporate’s response to impacts on children’s rights. Scores are not a measure of actual compliance with policies, outcomes of policies and/or programmes, nor should scores be construed as investment advice. Read more about the methodology here.
