Battle on vs kids' online game addiction

MANILA, Philippines - Authorities are now working on measures to address online gaming addiction among children.

Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director Chief Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao yesterday said they are working on measures to limit children’s online playtime and protect minors from being victimized through social networking sites.

“We are now planning – and actually it’s on the drawing board – for an Internet child protection center,” Pagdilao said.

Pagdilao noted more criminals are using Facebook and other popular social networking sites to target their prey.

He said at least 56 incidents of crimes were committed through Facebook from January until June 15.

Pagdilao said the 56 incidents were more than half of the crimes committed through the social networking site compared to 72 reported from January to December last year.

Pagdilao also stressed the need for measures to protect children from being hooked on online computer games.

He said many children spend hours in a computer shop playing online games.

“So we are now seeing Internet addiction as a problem, but Internet addiction is not a crime, drug addiction is a crime. So how do we address this – education awareness,” Pagdilao said.

He said the CIDG could not handle the problem alone.

“This is something that we have to network with other agencies, non-government organizations to address this one, it’s really more on educating the kids and the parents, that’s very important,” Pagdilao said.

Pagdilao said barangay officials could also play an important role in guiding the parents in ensuring their kids would not be hooked on computer games.

Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa of the CIDG Cyber Crime Division said Filipino Internet users ballooned by 1,000 percent in the past 10 years.

Sosa added Filipinos ranked fifth among the 22 million people in the world with Facebook accounts.

Sosa agreed on the need for a law against cyber crimes to allow the police to address the issues.

Sosa said the CIDG has been implementing organization capacity building to improve the capability of law enforcers in addressing cyber crimes.

Sosa also added the need to strengthen international cooperation between law enforcement agencies abroad since cyber crime knows no boundaries.

He pointed out that in some countries, the Philippines had mutual legal assistance agreements that would allow law enforcers to gather records in 48 hours.

Sosa added they also launched an awareness advocacy campaign to educate Internet users on the dos and don’ts to protect their privacy and ensure their safety.

Last June 18, call center employee Maria Luisa Dominguez-Laquindanum was stabbed dead and robbed Saturday in Mandaluyong City by her four male visitors, including her supposed boyfriend whom she met on Facebook.

Laquindanum sustained 26 stab wounds in different parts of her body, was hogtied and her face covered by a blanket.

Pagdilao said they are still gathering information to determine if indeed Facebook could have been used by the suspects to gain the victim’s trust.

He attributed the upsurge of criminality in the country to the increased popularity of social networking.

“We are still verifying records for us to state for a fact the upsurge of crimes attributable to social networking like Facebook and Twitter and the rest,” said Pagdilao.

According to Pagdilao, the statistics were only based on the records of “walk-in” complainants, who sought the help of the CIDG.

“The crimes range from estafa, libel, identity theft, pornography and other related crimes, which were committed through social networking. So 72 cases last year compared to 56 from January 1 this year, although we are still in the first semester of this year, so we have six more months to go,” Pagdilao added.

Pagdilao though lamented there is no law to punish identity theft through the Internet.