Nihilist extremism

At a kindergarten in a private school near my home, the students have textbooks on “Kabutihang Asal” and “Araling Panlipunan.”

The book on good manners and right conduct teaches the student personal hygiene, obedience, respect, responsibility, friendship, love, courage, patience, diligence and patriotism.

The book on social studies discusses the child’s relationships – with oneself, family, other people, the school and the general community.

Such positive ideas are taught in school from an early age. But what if different values are learned by the child in a toxic home environment, or in a violent neighborhood? 

And what if other values are imparted, with better come-ons, in the other world where most minors now spend much of their time – cyberspace?

In my youth, parents fretted about peer pressure and their children running with a bad crowd. Today the kids are being influenced by strangers using avatars, who prey on their vulnerabilities to make them commit despicable deeds. 

Following the shooting rampage in a Tacloban City high school, wherein two boys aged 14 and 15 killed three schoolmates and wounded 20 others, parents are cramming to grasp nihilism. This was after law enforcement agencies said the two shooters appeared to have been influenced by a nihilistic violent extremist or NVE network called “764,” with “groomers” befriending them through the severe violence gaming platform GoreBox. 

Last Saturday, the National Bureau of Investigation announced the arrest and indictment of a 19-year-old who induced minors as young as 10 to engage in online sexual activity. The NBI said the suspect used the online gaming platform Roblox and paid for the sexual content with its virtual currency, Robux.

Above age 18, the suspect is no longer exempt from criminal prosecution. He’s facing charges for violation of Republic Act 11930, which prohibits the online sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

Many parents have yet to understand cryptocurrency, and now they have to deal with Robux.

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The adults can’t seem to agree on banning violent gaming platforms or restricting minors’ online access. They are against lowering the age of criminal responsibility from the current 15 years old. They are against putting juvenile offenders in jail even if separate from adults. No politician wants to amend gun laws, lest he might be compelled to surrender all his guns issued to his private army.

Instead the advice is for parents to do better at parenting. This presumes that parents have the time and the peaceful home environment to hover around their kids’ online activities. But the reality is that many parents are busy making a living, and are glad to have schools and cyberspace to keep the kids preoccupied.

With the adults running around like headless chickens, the kids are happily indulging their inner homicidal maniac. Last Thursday night, four minors were arrested for stabbing a Grade 8 student, age 13, in front of a barangay hall in Las Piñas.

It’s a rebellion against established authority, encouraged by the idea that minors 15 and younger won’t be made to pay for murder.

Nihilism is not a new human affliction. The idea that life is meaningless and that concepts of good and evil are human constructs rather than universal truths can hit not just teens who have yet to find their life’s purpose, but even adults at different stages of life.

Teen angst and nihilism in adults can fuel creativity. Poetry and pop music are replete with nihilistic themes, and the lines and tunes can be haunting.

But nihilism can also fuel violence and self-harm. It’s a common element in suicidal thoughts.

Today, another danger linked to nihilism has emerged: homicide. Carried out by kids, in their schools. And the violence is being triggered by faceless strangers in a multiverse that is alien to many parents. 

That danger can keep some parents up all night – especially since they are being reminded to exercise better supervision over their kids.

Having been a rebellious child since I was 12, I can understand how difficult it can be for parents to supervise their kids. At adolescence, children begin thinking that their parents can’t do anything right, and start looking at peers or other influence groups for ideas outside those espoused by the adults in one’s household.

Troubled kids are the most vulnerable to radicalization by transnational, decentralized digital networks that espouse NVE. These extremists befriend vulnerable minors through chat features in gaming and mental health platforms, and then influence the youths to commit sexual acts, self-harm, sadism, murder and terrorist mass casualty events.

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It seems like a dystopian movie, pure fiction, which makes it even more worrisome that this threat is genuinely upon us.

Among the favored platforms, according to law enforcers, are Roblox, GoreBox, Minecraft, Discord and Telegram. Filipino minors, because of their English proficiency, are particularly vulnerable to foreign groomers. 

The global law enforcement network has sent out alerts. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is working with the Philippine National Police to address this new threat. 

In February this year, the FBI in Boston warned of a “sharp increase” in the activities of “764” and other NVE networks targeting children and other vulnerable individuals, grooming them by building a trusting or romantic relationship before starting the exploitation and coercion. Over 350 subjects across the US were under FBI probe.

These NVE extremists, the FBI said, “want to sow chaos and facilitate the destruction of society.”

A misanthropic or humanity-hating group called “No Lives Matter” along with the “True Crime Community” have been linked to at least nine school shooting plots, according to the think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

Parents groping their way through the nihilistic haze may want to heed pointers from the FBI, on red flags to watch out for in their kids.

These include sudden behavioral changes, such as becoming moody or irritable; scars, burns and other signs of physical injury; neglect of appearance or hiding of certain body parts; changes in sleeping habits; signs of animal cruelty; harming siblings for no reason, and threats or talks of suicide and feeling unwanted.

Text messages, phone calls, packages or gifts to the child from unknown sources as well as doxing of the child should also raise red flags, according to the FBI.

But when parenting and values formation in school fail, the law must step in and prevent the violent child from becoming a further menace to society.