MANILA, Philippines – Officials from the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) and the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) are pushing for stricter safeguards, stronger age verification systems, faster takedown mechanisms, and a formal Philippine presence for Roblox, in attempts to ensure accountability and child protection.

Speaking during Rappler’s “Ask Me Anything” session, CICC Executive Director Alexander “Aboy” Paraiso and CWC Executive Director Angelo Tapales detailed how the government’s concerns escalated after reports tied extremist grooming and violent radicalization efforts to online gaming spaces.

“We noticed that there are reports that bad actors are migrating or at least using gaming platforms to harm children,” Tapales said. “Not just for grooming, not just for cyberbullying, for scams. But recently, because of the report of the PNP, for radicalization or to push children to commit violence.”

Tapales said gaming platforms must be treated similarly to physical spaces or toys designed for children.

“Gaming platforms should be by design, safe,” Tapales said. “If it’s like a game or a toy marketed for children, it should not be harmful to begin with.”

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Grooming, radicalization, and migration to messaging apps

Paraiso detailed the specific tactics allegedly used by recruiters and extremist groomers inside gaming platforms, describing how they create custom content designed to attract vulnerable children.

“If I was the groomed terrorist, I would come up with shooting games, terrorist games. Then naturally, there would be some that would gravitate towards those,” he said. Groomers identify children that may be more vulnerable to being influenced.

According to Paraiso, once children are identified through these games and interactions, they are often moved away from Roblox and into less regulated messaging applications where indoctrination becomes more direct.

“What they do is they take them out of the platform into other messaging platforms,” he said, where they are further radicalized.

He added that these channels are then allegedly used to distribute instructions related to violence and extremism.

Children are “indoctrinated, radicalized and then, there they can be given instructions such as how to purchase guns, how to make homemade bombs,” Paraiso said.

The officials also raised concerns over in-game currencies like Robux, which they said can be used for scams, grooming, or luring children. Coordination with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Bureau of Internal Revenue may be explored for oversight mechanisms for virtual economies tied to gaming platforms, Paraiso said. 

Paraiso said the CICC has also been partnering with advocacy groups and private sector organizations to strengthen monitoring, detection, and prevention capabilities.

“There are a lot of advocates there who are willing to donate not only their expertise and their advocacies but really donate capacity, tools, resources to the government,” he said.

Still, he stressed that many monitoring systems ultimately remain under the control of platform operators themselves, meaning the platform owner holds significant responsibility over keeping their platform safe. 

CWC: Child protection “starts at home”

While the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center focuses on platform regulation and enforcement, the Council for the Welfare of Children emphasized that families remain the first line of defense against online harm.

Tapales argued that the traditional “village” needed to raise a child has now expanded into cyberspace, requiring parents to become more digitally literate and actively involved in their children’s online lives.

“Child protection starts at home,” Tapales said. “It’s really the parents. So if your children are already digital citizens… we have to learn the gadgets, we have to learn the applications.”

He stressed that parents should participate in their children’s digital lives without turning online supervision into excessive policing.

“Yung parents’ observation is our first line of detection,” Tapales said.

According to the CWC chief, parents should watch for behavioral changes that may signal grooming, distress, or exploitation online. These include children becoming “more secretive,” hiding gadgets or online activity, withdrawing from family interactions, or experiencing sudden mood swings.

“These are signs or possible precursors before violations are committed,” he warned.

Tapales also advised parents to avoid punitive reactions when children report harmful online experiences.

“When a child reports to you something bad… do not meet it with punishment. Otherwise, hindi na yun magsusumbong sa’yo,” he said. (Otherwise, they’ll stop reporting to you.)

Instead, he encouraged parents to listen carefully, assess the situation immediately, and seek help through reporting hotlines or authorities when necessary. 

The CWC can be reached for reports at hotline 1383 while the CICC can be reached at hotline 1326. 

“Cyberspace is like a big playground. It’s a digital community. So while children have a right to reasonable access of digital technology, we have to be sure that they are safe too. So it starts with parents. Parents should be there, should be part of the digital life of children,” Tapales said.

But he also underscored the importance of being transparent: “You should tell your children that we are monitoring you, we are observing you, not to limit you or to restrict you, but to protect you. At the outset, lay it out there on the table, so the child will not be defensive. So I believe in observation, I believe in transparency.”

CICC’s ‘non-negotiables’ for Roblox

Paraiso stressed that the government has “non-negotiables” before it can fully back away from the possibility of a ban. The agency had used the threat of a ban — as a last resort — to get Roblox to negotiate, Paraiso said. 

Among these demands are the establishment of a Philippine office, integration with the national PhilSys ID system for age verification, and a “green lane” system for faster takedown requests and subpoena compliance.

“It’s non-negotiable for us,” Paraiso said regarding the request for Roblox to establish a local office. “There has to be a mechanism wherein we can issue subpoenas and they respond to those subpoenas.”

Furthermore, the government has been able to establish a “Green Lane” — a 24/7 dedicated communications channel for the immediate takedown of harmful content and faster coordination with authorities. 

But he also noted the limitations due to time-zone differences.

“Because of the time difference, the [Roblox-assigned contact person] is not there 24/7,” he said. “There has to be a dedicated team 24/7 that we could report to.”

Paraiso clarified that they are not yet requiring Roblox to build Philippine-based servers or data centers, acknowledging that the country may not yet be fully prepared for the infrastructure demands that would entail.

One of the government’s biggest concerns is Roblox’s current age verification system.

Paraiso said CICC investigators were able to register as minors and still access sexually explicit content and violent shooting games.

“When CICC did its investigation, we were able to register as minors,” he said. “As minors, we were able to see sexually explicit content then we can also access shooting games.”

Paraiso criticized existing AI-powered age estimation systems as unreliable.

“That’s the problem if we’re just guess-timating the age… There has to be a single source of truth. In the case of the Philippines, it’s the PhilSys IDsystem,” which he described as the country’s most comprehensive national database because it includes both adults and minors.

Laws need to keep up with technology

Both agencies acknowledged that Philippine laws need to keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies, especially AI-generated abuse materials and borderless cybercrimes.

Tapales pointed to pending amendments to Republic Act 11930, or the Anti-OSAEC (Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children) and Anti-CSAEM (Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials) Act, which lawmakers hope to strengthen to address AI-generated exploitation and emerging technologies.

He cited alarming global trends involving AI-generated child sexual abuse materials.

“There is a 1,325% increase of AI-generated child sexual abuse materials globally,” Tapales said.

Paraiso added that current legal systems remain territorial even while cybercrime operates across borders.

“In the internet, with regards to cybercrime, [it’s] borderless siya. But our laws are still territorial,” he said.

The officials also highlighted how international coordination mechanisms often move too slowly for fast-moving online crimes, where evidence can disappear within minutes.

What success looks like

For the CWC, success over the next six months would include stronger parental involvement, improved reporting behavior among children, and greater willingness from tech companies to cooperate with child safety efforts.

“An uptick in the interest of parents to learn gadgets, social media, and gaming apps is a big win for us,” Tapales said.

Paraiso said the CICC’s definition of success is simpler: a genuine working partnership between government and gaming platforms.

“There has to be a real partnership based on a sincere intent to protect children and their users,” he said. “If that partnership works, there’s no need for banning.”

Both officials said the Roblox issue could become a blueprint for how the Philippines regulates future gaming and social platforms used heavily by minors. “Roblox would be a trailblazer if they comply,” Paraiso said. – Rappler.com