Gorebox ban risks becoming permanent, says cybercrime center chief
MANILA, Philippines — The game linked to the Tacloban shooting incident Gorebox might be permanently banned in the Philippines after its developer refused to attend the Senate investigation, the chief of the country’s cybercrime center said.
The Executive Director of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center Renato Paraiso said in an interview with ANC on Thursday, July 2, that the German-based game developer Felix Filip missed ‘a very important opportunity’ to explain to Filipino authorities whether Gorebox had the proper safety measures.
“Harapin man lang ho ‘yung mga tao dito sa Pilipinas eh hindi niya magawa. That to me is telling na mukhang hindi na natin ili-lift yung ban sa Gorebox,” Paraiso said.
(He cannot even face the people here in the Philippines. That to me is telling that we may not lift the ban on Gorebox.)
Filip previously rejected the Senate invitation to appear during the probe onto Tacloban shooting conducted on July 1. The developer also stressed that his game is strictly for players aged 18 and above only.
His game was linked to the Tacloban school shooting after authorities found out that the 14-year-old suspect in the incident was a regular player of Gorebox. The game has been banned in the country since then.
Paraiso added that the conditions of the CICC to Filip are the same conditions they gave to the developers of Roblox during the Senate’s first investigation on online games as platforms used by particular groups to spread violent ideologies among Filipino youth.
“Come here to the Philippines, explain and show to us that you have sufficient safety, you have sufficient age verification and you have sufficient controls on your platforms,” Paraiso said.
Regulations, not sweeping ban. The CICC said the government needs policies to regulate violent online games instead of banning them completely.
“There has to be some sort of guidelines, whether it’s policy, whether it’s legislation, how we should regulate them,” Paraiso said.
Paraiso’s idea is to impose the ban only if the gaming platforms refuse to follow the standards set by the government in order to protect the children who might access these games.
“Our primary concern is for our children’s safety, and if you cannot comply with the bare minimum of what we want and what we deemed necessary for our children’s safety, doon ka pa lang maba-ban,” Paraiso said.
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