SEN. Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday clarified that she never recommended or even thought about banning any online games, including Gorebox, which were being linked to violent behavior among the youth.
The senator dismissed as fake news social media posts about her alleged proposal to ban online games.
“There’s no recommendation yet, or findings from the Senate Committee on Women because we are still to hold the hearing tomorrow (July 1),” Hontiveros wrote on Facebook.
“So, wag pangunahan nung mga nag fake news over the weekend. Dun po tayo sa totoo (So, it should not be preempted by peddlers of fake news. Let’s side with the truth),” she added.
Hontiveros raised the need to hear the side of Gorebox’s developer “because it seems, this NVE or nihilistic violent extremism, ang operation nito ([based on] its operation) there are malign actors who enter into the games.”
“They spot and target; sinusubukan nilang kaibiganin ‘yung ilang mga batang naglalaro doon (they try to befriend some of the young players there),” she said.
“And then apparently they lure them out of the gaming platform and on to other spaces like Messenger, as in the case of the [earlier] Roblox hearing. It is there where they groom the child to commit violence,” she added.
“So, I would have wanted the Gorebox developer to be there,” Hontiveros said, referring to Felix Felip, who earlier declined the committee’s invitation to participate in the inquiry.
She said that when the Department of Justice said that the case bears the markings of the possible influence of NVE.”
The committee invited officials from the Department of Education, Department of Social Welfare and Development, the parents of the three students killed during the Tacloban school shooting, and the aunt of one of the shooters who owns the gun used by the suspect.
“We invited the Game Developers Association of the Philippines, PNP Tacloban, and many others because this issue is very broad. It is about parental control; it is about gun access; there are many factors [in this case],” she said.
