The Philippine National Police (PNP) will be assisting in the conduct of cyber patrol intended to monitor  video games and online applications that may expose minors to violent behavior and safety risks.

PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio C. Nartatez, Jr. said they will be working with the Cybercrime and Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) which earlier blocked open-world gaming platform GoreBox after one of the Tacloban school shooters was found to have been addicted to it.

Nartatez said the move is part of the efforts to strengthen child protection mechanisms online, intensify cyber monitoring, and prevent digital platforms from being used for criminal influence or harm to 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 Nartatez.

He said the Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) will take the lead in the coordination not only with the CICC but also wither other government agencies and stakeholders.

Police records showed 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 being reviewed following reports that it was being played by one of the minor suspects in the incident.

Nartatez said they will also review studies and research outputs on the connection between exposure to online violence of the minors to their behavior in the school and in the community.

This is the reason, according to him, why coordination with stakeholders, particularly from the academe and advocacy groups, is important.

“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 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 stressed.

Nartatez earlier called on parents, guardians, and teachers to work together in monitoring the social media and online game use of the children after one of the minor suspects in the Tacloban school incident was found to be an avid player of Gorebox.