SPEAKERS at the annual Student Forum of The Manila Times called for more protections for students against online threats in the aftermath of the deadly school shootings in Zamboanga City on Tuesday and in Tacloban City in June.
Speaking before an audience of students and teachers at the Winford Hotel in Sta. Cruz, Manila, on Thursday, Council for the Welfare of Children Executive Director Angelo Tapales said that every incident like Tacloban and Zamboanga is “unacceptable” but showed the audience grim statistics of what he described as an “epidemic” of bullying.
Quoting statistics from the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EdCom 2), he said 43 percent of Filipino girls and 53 percent of Filipino boys experience bullying a few times every month.
Meanwhile, 19 percent of students said they feel unsafe in schools, while 8 percent said that they feel unsafe right inside their classrooms, and 8 percent feel unsafe on their way to school.
Tapales also warned parents who assume that their children are safe simply because they are inside their own homes.
“Even if your child is right next to you using a cell phone, it is as if you sent them out of the house. That is what we must think of,” Tapales said in Filipino.
He also said that while half of cyberspace is beneficial to children, the other half could be a “dark and dangerous place.”
“We must teach our children to be safe while using cyberspace or even artificial intelligence (AI) in the same way that we teach them how to cross the street or how to safely play in the park,” Tapales said.
Philippine Institute of Cybersecurity Professionals Chairman and President Angel Redoble introduced to the audience the concept of “Cyber Enabled Cognitive Grooming,” and said that the school shootings and stabbings that occurred in the country are not “not isolated, random incidents of school bullying, but the result of highly systematic, neuroscience-backed cognitive conditioning.”
He said that the recent school violence in the country was due to a “decentralized, leaderless network” called 764 that “operates at the intersection of violent extremism and child sexual exploitation.”
Redoble said the group is tied to a wider network propagating a “No Lives Matter” ideology, which seeks to end the world by targeting and radicalizing vulnerable minors.
He also shared his frustration on how local governments and schools react to the school incidents, arguing that when school stabbings or shooting plots occur, authorities immediately default to standard physical security, crisis meetings or labeling the issue as simple schoolyard bullying.
“Bullying is a big problem, but in this case, bullying did not put the plan in the shooter’s hand. So there is a huge disconnect,” Redoble said.
Redoble said the solution should not just ban video games that could hurt local developers, but in “active, regulated parenting.”
“Let’s not make our gadgets babysitters,” Redoble said.
Dr. Neil Patrick del Gallego, chairman of the Department of Software Technology of the College of Computer Studies of De La Salle University, stressed that not everyone in game development is up to no good and said violent games “are the exception, not the rule.”
He also explained how artificial intelligence, or AI, should be used, urging students not to use them immediately for answers, and stressed that AI is only useful if the human operator already deeply understands the underlying principles.
“Foundations are more important ... If you have AI, it could speed up your understanding, development or help recall foundations or theories. But if you don’t have the theories or foundations, we’re just really going to blindly ask AI, how to do this? How do you create this?” del Gallego said.
George Royeca, chief executive of Angkas, shared how the ride-hailing app weathered challenges including being shut down for three times by transport regulators.
He stressed that despite the challenges, including a global pandemic, Angkas was able to prove that its business model was indispensable to the public, which led to the Department of Transportation to recognize motorcycles-for-hire as a public utility.
“Every major failure that we did became a milestone. A lot of people found out about us because we were shut down. I thank all of the failures that happened, all of the shutdowns. Because if it weren’t for that, you wouldn’t have been such a well-known brand across the country,” Royeca said.
He also said that failure is not just a “source of shame” but a vehicle for learning.
Other speakers in the forum include Dr. Shirley Padua of the Philippine Women’s University on inclusivity on the classroom, content creators Mona Magno Veluz, Lyqa Maravilla and Christine Kay Ico, aka KC Ico, who shared about how educational content creation is the key to preventing the spread of misinformation, as well as nutritionist Jelina Ombao, who explained the benefits of nutrition, and Reyes Tacandong and Co. partner Maria Sheila Deblois, on artificial intelligence.
The Manila Times President and Chief Operating Officer Blanca Mercado said child protection is “multidimensional” and cannot be achieved by just restricting screen time or placing firewalls. She called instead for a holistic approach to student well-being.
