Cris, a 38-year-old insurance company employee, has been losing sleep of late over the online activities of his son Richard, 13. His worries grew following the June 22 shooting incident at a Tacloban City high school, which authorities partly blamed on one of the two underage suspects being hooked on violent video games.
‘As soon as he comes home from school, he would start playing and it would go on until the wee hours. He would only stop just to eat, and sleep only after some scolding’ Cris said of his boy, a Grade 8 student in a Mandaluyong City school.
Things got more alarming when Cris saw the chatroom thread between his son and a classmate as they played, indicating they were talking to a third person apparently outside their circle of friends.
‘I also saw the word ‘gambling’ in their conversation. I don’t know if it’s part of the game or what,’ Cris told the Inquirer in an interview earlier this week.
He also caught Richard cursing and using foul language in the chats. ‘I’m sure he didn’t hear those words at home because we’re very conscious about that,’ Cris said.
The teenager, who used to be an honor student, remains typically shy during social gatherings, the father said, ‘but transforms into a different person’ once glued to his mobile phone. His favorite app: Roblox, one of the world’s largest gaming platforms.
‘He becomes aggressive and irritated especially when being asked to do some chores in the middle of his game,’ he said, noting that one of the games Richard play on Roblox involves fight scenarios.
It’s the same case with Sofia, an intense Roblox gamer at age 10.
‘She gets annoyed when you call her when she’s playing. She stomps her feet when asked to do something; I see her banging her fist on the table,’ said Sofia’s mother Karen, an office clerk.
‘Because I don’t want to lose,’ Sofia said, butting in, admitting that her opponents are mainly her classmates.
Cris and Karen may just be two of the countless parents sharing the same concerns following the Tacloban shooting incident.
Two months before the campus attack, in April, Roblox was actually almost banned in the Philippines. The first to raise the alarm were, again, parents, and the conversation touched on ‘grooming’-the process where a malicious adult manipulates minors using online platforms, befriending them, gaining their trust, and eventually exploiting them for sexual abuse, trafficking or extortion
But the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) later announced that Roblox could stay. This was after Roblox executives vowed stricter safeguards, improved monitoring and reporting mechanisms, and age-appropriate content controls.
No proven connection
Days after the June 22 shooting, the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) ordered the temporary blocking of another online shooting game, GoreBox, after police looked into the online history of one of the suspects.The CICC then said authorities could not ignore the possibility that online content had influenced the boy’s violent behavior.
But according to Dr. Rafael Henry Legaspi, a psychiatrist at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), there’s still no established causal link between video game mayhem and real-world aggression.
‘There are studies being made to look into this phenomenon-the increase in video game use among young people and increase in gun violence in different parts of the world. But there is no conclusive evidence to show a direct link between the two,’ said Legaspi, a training officer at the UP-PGH Division of Addiction and Recovery Medicine.
‘It’s easy to say ‘it’s because of their exposure to online games.’ It’s easy [to stoke] moral panic that it’s the video game. Yes, it might be part of the equation, but it is not the direct cause. The increased violence among young people is very complex,’ he added.
The connection also hasn’t been proven even in the United States, which has an extensive history of gun violence. Japan and South Korea also have ‘a very strong gaming culture’ yet post some of the lowest gun homicide rates in the world, he said.
What happened in Tacloban, Legaspi said, may be more about easy access to guns, not gaming.
‘We should also look at the family background of the children involved. We should not easily judge whether or not they have a good environment, but we have to look into that as well,’ he said. ‘Is there violence at home? Did they witness not just video game violence but actual marital conflict? These things should be considered.’
On July 1, the Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality is set to look into the circumstances surrounding the shooting incident. The inquiry also takes off from a hearing held in April on the ‘growing threat of online radicalization’ among children.
‘Unfiltered interaction’
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the panel chair, said ‘We are not saying that this tragedy was caused by a single game. But if there is an online environment that may have been part of the children’s exposure to violence, it is our duty to investigate that.’
Dr. Constantine Yu Chua, a consultant at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division of UP-PGH, said it is possible for minors to be ‘indoctrinated’ or ‘radicalized’ not by the game itself but through their interaction with other players or strangers online.
‘Online games allow players to communicate with one another. For example, in Roblox, or other online games where apart from playing the game, they’re also able to talk with adults from other countries. That’s when they can get indoctrinated or radicalized,’ Yu Chua told the Inquirer.
‘There are also predators in online games. Sometimes parents thought their children were just playing a game, not knowing that online interactions are also happening,’ he added.
‘It’s their unfiltered interaction with people who are not good for them.’
Easy scapegoat
As to the Tacloban shooting, blaming online games for the suspect’s act ‘seems like a very superficial solution,’ Yu Chua said.
Paolo Bago, a longtime esports professional, did not deny that ‘radicalization’ of minors can really happen while playing online games.
‘That’s true, I’m not denying that,’ he said. ‘But it is not the content of the game that is radicalizing, it’s who (the children) interact with. It’s not the content of the games per se. There are no games out there that say ‘Please shoot your school.’ That’s not how it is.’
‘Inside those social games … sometimes they talk to other players whose faces they don’t really see. They start to chat with them, hang out with them virtually, and that’s where it happens,’ Bago explained.
‘So it’s important for parents to remind their kids, ‘Don’t talk to strangers. Be careful.’ Be involved in their lives, rather than just monitoring them. Encourage healthy positive interactions brought about by games,’ he added.
‘It almost looks like a scapegoat because it’s easier to blame video games. But I don’t know any online game that will give you a gun in real life,’ said Bago, one of the founders of esports organization Blacklist International.
‘I have high respect for institutions of the government, for the police … but I think it’s irresponsible and premature to conclude that a video game was the main cause. Let’s do some solid legwork in figuring out what actually happened.”
‘If you ban a violent video game outright, you know what will happen? Your child, who is smarter at using the internet than you, will find a way to work around that game. And now its cool to play it. Why? Because it’s banned. We did not solve the problem, we just kicked the problem down the road,’ Bago said.
Khryz Matthew Bejar, a casual gamer, also cautioned against generalizations: ‘There are a lot of people playing violent games in the country and all over the world but they don’t have violent tendencies. No one is saying they were inspired by the game so they want to do it in real life.’
Reducing screen time
Malacañang said President Marcos is open to proposals to ban violent online games that may negatively influence the youth.
There is also a pending bill in the Senate, the draft Social Media Safety for Children Act, which seeks to prohibit children below 16 from registering, accessing or maintaining social media accounts.
Dr. Legaspi of UP-PGH said any form of legislation that would reduce screen time of children is welcome, noting that such excessive exposure among young children is associated with mental health concerns.
‘I do agree with the starting or continuing discussions regarding the regulation, or putting legislative limit on the screen time of our young people, and more specifically, with violent video games. But it will take a lot of discussion among our specialists,’ he said.
Focus should also be given to the ‘responsibilities” of parents and guardians. ‘Do not just allow the child to consume any kind of gaming content or content in general.’
For Yu Chua, setting an age limit for social media use may be a good idea, but ‘it’s more important to educate the families, for parents to be involved in the social media and online cyber lives of their children.’
‘You know how people are, the more you restrict something, the more they want it. Maybe it’s better to regulate (games) and empower children rather than simply imposing a ban.’
Protective measures
Among the solutions Yu Chua suggested to protect children is to place the computer in a common area in the house-instead of just inside a child’s room-so that online activities can be easily monitored.
Families should also be more mindful of online safety, teaching children to detect signs that they’re being tricked or know what information they should not share, Yu Chua said.
‘Tell them to immediately inform you when they spot people trying to indoctrinate or scam them,’ he added. ‘Sometimes we cannot prevent them from engaging in online interaction, (but) teach them critical thinking. Think before believing, before responding (to strangers).”
And, of course, there remains a world to explore-for leisure, recreation and relationships-outside the screen.
‘They can engage in sports, in the arts. They can spend time outdoors,’ Yu Chua added.