Emmanuel Tupas
August 29, 2026
Philippine government officials met with regional executives of Meta and Roblox in Singapore following a spate of violent incidents in schools perpetrated by minors allegedly influenced by predators and groomers online.
Tech giant Meta and online gaming platform Roblox have agreed to strengthen their child safety measures following meetings with Philippine cybersecurity officials.
Meta has committed to be more proactive in removing harmful artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes on its online platforms, the Philippine officials said.
The company also agreed to provide the credentials and data of users involved in online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, child sexual abuse and exploitation materials, obscene content and online abuse.
For its part, Roblox has vowed to integrate its user verification prods with the Philippine Identification or national ID system and establish a local office in the Philippines by October this year, which are the two remaining conditions the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has set so it can continue operations in the country.
Meta representatives also vowed to respond to lawful requests from authorities investigating cybercrimes and other online threats, Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center executive director Renato Paraiso said on Friday, Aug. 28.
“Our expectation is that these developments will translate into faster coordination, more effective investigations and, more importantly, better protection for Filipinos, especially children and other vulnerable internet users,” Paraiso said.
DICT Secretary Henry Aguda, Paraiso and other government officials met with regional executives of Meta and Roblox in Singapore following a spate of violent incidents in schools perpetrated by minors allegedly influenced by predators and groomers online.
For Roblox, the gaming platform has complied with the three other requirements – default public controls, a chat system to monitor violent tendencies and coordination with gaming communities.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla earlier flagged Roblox for its chat group where groomers, both foreigners and Filipinos, were found to be inciting teenage users to commit violence.
The integration of Roblox’s verification process with the country’s ID system will help establish users’ identities, making it difficult for adult predators and groomers to access spaces used by children.
Paraiso said Roblox agreed to develop measures that would allow children to communicate only with users within their own age group and close loopholes that could allow adults, groomers and extremist elements to infiltrate child-focused spaces in the platform.
Paraiso said the government is also looking at additional safeguards that may be included into the guidelines and regulatory measures for online gaming platforms. They will hold a town hall meeting to get inputs from web developers.
Meta officials are set to meet with government officials in September to discuss information sharing protocols with law enforcers and measures against violent and abusive content on its platforms.
NBI Director Melvin Matibag said the discussions will focus on a protocol for information sharing to support case-building and investigations by law enforcement agencies.
“They themselves will go to Manila to put into writing, through a memorandum of understanding or agreement, what we want to do,” Matibag told Bilyonaryo News Channel.
The NBI chief said the talks covered recent incidents involving violence against children in Tacloban and Zamboanga, as well as online scams, abuse and deepfakes targeting public figures.
He said Meta had committed to cooperate with Philippine authorities even before a proposed law expanding the government’s authority over online platforms takes effect. Under the proposed measure, platforms would be required to provide data requested by law enforcers, he said.
‘No evidence of conspiracy, bullying’
The Ateneo de Zamboanga University (AdZU) said that results of the investigation of the Philippine National Police did not find conspiracy and bullying following the shooting on its campus that left two students dead, including the gunman.
“We have received the PNP investigation report of the Aug. 8 incident at our junior high school. AdZU cooperated fully through all the investigation and will continue to cooperate as the legal process moves forward. The report found no evidence of conspiracy or coordination with others,” AdZU president Fr. Ernald Andal said in a video message, as he confirmed that they already received a copy of the PNP report.
“It also found no evidence that bullying, disciplinary concerns, interpersonal conflict or a school-related grievance motivated the attack. This is important to note because in the days immediately after the incident, many claims about bullying, conflict in school and other supposed motives were circulated as though they were already established facts,” Andal added.
As the PNP has referred complaints for alleged reckless imprudence resulting in homicide and physical injuries against two persons, Andal noted that these matters will now go through the proper legal process.
“We respect due process and will not prejudge anyone’s responsibility. We will also extend appropriate support to affected personnel and so far as this may properly be provided,” he said. – With additional reports from Mark Ernest Villeza and Bella Cariaso
