The Philippine National Police (PNP) will coordinate with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) to intensify monitoring of video games and online applications that may expose minors to violent behavior and safety risks.
Police General Jose Melencio C. Nartatez Jr. said the move comes as authorities look into possible links between the open-world gaming platform GoreBox and one of the minor suspects in the fatal shooting incident in Tacloban City that left three students dead and 20 others injured.
The initiative follows directives from President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr., through DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla, to strengthen online child protection measures, intensify cyber monitoring, and prevent digital platforms from being used to influence or harm minors.
“As law enforcers, we also have the obligation to initiate measures that will protect all our kababayan, particularly minors, from the harmful effects of exposure to online violence. And this is what we intend to do on this matter,” said PGEN Nartatez.
He said the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) will lead coordination efforts with the CICC and other government agencies and stakeholders.
Police records indicated that GoreBox, an open-ended sandbox game featuring weapons, environments, and physics systems that allow users to create or destroy scenarios, has already been flagged and is under prohibition by concerned authorities.
The game is also under review following reports that it was played by one of the minor suspects in the incident.
Nartatez said the PNP will also study available research on the possible link between exposure to online violence among minors and behavioral outcomes in school and community settings.
He added that coordination with stakeholders, particularly from the academe and advocacy groups, is essential in developing appropriate measures.
“Advocacy groups and other stakeholders usually possess a plethora of research and study results on this particular subject matter—and they fully know what they are talking about,” said PGEN Nartatez.
“On the part of the PNP, we want to sit down with them to come up with the proper and best measures on how to deal with the children on the issue of their exposure to violent games and other online games,” he added.
Nartatez earlier called on parents, guardians, and teachers to closely monitor children’s use of social media and online games following reports that one of the minor suspects in the Tacloban incident was an avid player of GoreBox.