The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is step-up efforts to curb the spread of Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE) and other harmful online content, as children and young people face increasing exposure to graphic violence, exploitation and materials that could encourage dangerous behavior.
The department is deepening coordination with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), Philippine National Police (PNP), telecommunications companies, internet service providers and digital platforms to strengthen threat monitoring, information-sharing and network-level safeguards.
The initiative has prompted major telecommunications and internet service providers to expand voluntary blocking of websites carrying graphic violence, school shooting footage, child sexual abuse and exploitation materials, scams and other prohibited content.
Globe Telecom Inc., PLDT Inc., Smart Communications Inc., and Converge ICT Solutions Inc. are among the companies strengthening their network-level safeguards as part of the broader government-industry response.
“These efforts are part of our continuing work to protect Filipinos, especially children and young people, from harmful content and threats such as NVE,” DICT stated. “We welcome the proactive steps being taken by our telecommunications and internet service providers. This is Digital Bayanihan in action, government and industry working together to keep our digital spaces safe.”
PLDT and Smart have begun preemptively blocking more than 100 domains associated with extreme violence, while Globe is expanding its blocking of websites containing gore and real-world violence.
Globe also reported blocking 438,446 domains associated with child sexual abuse and exploitation materials in 2025.
Converge, meanwhile, said it blocked nearly 12 billion access attempts to harmful websites and blacklisted more than 72,000 domains during the same year.
The measures form part of broader network-level child-safeguarding and anti-abuse initiatives undertaken in cooperation with Philippine government agencies and international child-safety organizations.
“Keeping the internet safe is a shared responsibility,” DICT emphasized. “We encourage all our partners in government and industry to remain vigilant, act responsibly and work with us to prevent harmful content from being used to promote violence, exploitation or other dangerous activities.”