Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

Article (news)

Rowegie Abanto

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/178712132135620260205-illegal-cigarette-production-samyoung-MT4.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said they have a &quot;great degree of confidence&quot; that the alleged gunman was influenced by Roblox. <em>Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/File</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Wednesday urged Congress to regulate children&#x27;s use of games that allow them to act like a shooter as he flagged platforms could be used to &quot;radicalize&quot; youngsters.</p><p>&quot;I call upon Congress again to help us control and curb the use of first-person shooter games that influence these young minds,&quot; Remulla said at a press conference following <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/8/19/ateneo-school-shooter-took-2-guns-from-customs-exec-father-s-car-boc-chief-1016">Tuesday&#x27;s deadly school shooting in Zamboanga</a> City.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/8/19/ateneo-school-shooter-took-2-guns-from-customs-exec-father-s-car-boc-chief-1016">Zamboanga school shooter took 2 guns from Customs exec father’s car–BOC chief</a></div><p>While authorities have yet to do a forensic examination on the gadgets of the shooter in the Ateneo de Zamboanga incident, Remulla said they have a &quot;great degree of confidence&quot; that he was influenced by online gaming platform Roblox.</p><p>&quot;Roblox in itself is not a dangerous game. It is the chat group that is beside it, doon nagkakaroon ng buyuan doon, nagkakaroon ng radicalization,&quot; he said.</p><p>Roblox is a game creation platform that allows users to construct and play games they built, including ones that use first-person shooters.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2026/8/19/school-shooting-psychiatrist-warns-of-copycat-risk-lists-possible-warning-signs-1155">School shooting: Psychiatrist warns of copycat risk, lists possible &#x27;warning signs&#x27;</a></div><p>The alleged student gunman was &quot;quite a Roblox fanatic,&quot; Zamboanga City Mayor Khymer Olaso said Tuesday, citing circulating text messages.</p><p>In April, Roblox announced new account types designed to provide age-checked kids and younger teens with age-appropriate content and features. </p><p>&quot;Earlier this year, Roblox established a new industry benchmark by becoming the first online gaming platform to require mandatory facial age checks to access chat,&quot; it <a href="https://dict.gov.ph/news-and-updates/26558">said</a> in a statement amid a Senate investigation into alleged grooming and child safety.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/8/19/dilg-again-calls-for-stricter-gun-laws-in-wake-of-another-school-shooting-1246">DILG calls for stricter gun laws in wake of Ateneo de Zamboanga shooting</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;ONLINE GAMES AS ENTRY POINT&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>The Zamboanga school shooting was the country&#x27;s second in months. </p><p>In June, three teenaged students were killed and 20 others wounded in a gun attack at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, Leyte.</p><p>Following the Tacloban incident, Remulla said that online games &quot;espousing violence&quot; like the open-world gaming platform GoreBox &quot;should be permanently banned&quot; in the Philippines.</p><p>He said then the game &quot;desensitizes&quot; young people into the elements of death, violence and murder.</p><p>Sen. Risa Hontiveros previously warned that online games were being used as an entry point for groups such as the extremist &quot;764&quot; network to influence children to perform attacks.</p><p>She said social media platforms were then used by the extremist groups to further communicate with target children.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/7/1/hontiveros-identifies-alleged-adult-groomer-of-tacloban-school-shooters-1042">Hontiveros identifies alleged &#x27;adult groomer&#x27; of Tacloban school shooters</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>SOCIAL MEDIA BAN?</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Remulla also signaled he wanted regulation for social media use of Filipino children, as he pointed to Australia&#x27;s social media restriction for under-16s as a &quot;great model.&quot; </p><p>&quot;Baka panahon na para tingnan natin &#x27;yon (Maybe it&#x27;s time to check their law),&quot; he said, stressing that such a similar measure alone won&#x27;t solve the problem of school shootings, which are rare in the Philippines.</p><p>&quot;Hindi naman one size fits all ang solusyon dito sa problema na ito, maraming kailangang gawin,&quot; he added.</p><p>(The solution to this problem is not one size fits all, many things are needed to be done.)</p><p>One of the first peer-reviewed evaluations of the Australian measure, published this month in the British Medical Journal, found &quot;insufficient evidence&quot; that it had much impact on social media use by youngsters.</p><p>The researchers surveyed more than 400 young people immediately before the restrictions came into effect, and again three months after, finding &quot;substantial circumvention&quot; of the rules. <strong>—With a report from Agence France-Presse</strong></p><div><br/></div><div><strong>WATCH</strong></div><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5yFToGmR7Pk?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong><br/></div>

<p>Roblox is a game creation platform that allows users to construct and play games they built, including ones that use first-person shooters.</p>

Roblox is a game creation platform that allows users to construct and play games they built, including ones that use first-person shooters.

Remulla links Roblox to 'radicalization' of children after deadly Zamboanga shooting

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Remulla links Roblox to 'radicalization' of children after deadly Zamboanga shooting

Rowegie Abanto,

ABS-CBN News

Published August 19, 2026 03:06 PM PHT

Read More:

Zamboanga City

Ateneo De Zamboanga

Jonvic Remulla

DILG

Ateneo De Zamboanga Shooting

School Shooting

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