PNP thwarts teenagers’ alleged plan to attack school
The Philippine National Police on Monday urged parents to warn their children against online games that “encourage violence” after seven teenagers in the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) region were turned over to social workers on Feb. 2 for hatching online a plan to attack their school on Feb. 16 using Molotov cocktails and bombs.
“We have to work together to ensure that our children will not be encouraged to violate the law by committing violence and other illegal activities that some people or groups may ask them to do,” PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said in a statement.
“We’ve seen it in other countries, and we are working to ensure it doesn’t take root here,” he added.
Based on a report from the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG), based on two weeks of social media monitoring, the five boys and two girls allegedly shared images and videos of school shootings in other countries and discussed plans to attack their school using Molotov cocktails, bombs and fire extinguishers to blind people.
They also wore shirts alluding to the scientific concept of natural selection and Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler. The seven minors were given psychosocial support while their devices underwent digital forensic examination.
Nartatez ordered the ACG to intensify its monitoring of online gaming communities and chat platforms where “extremist recruiters may attempt to contact minors.”
He also tasked the ACG to coordinate with gaming platform developers to take down accounts with suspicious activities.
