Could the youth still live up to Rizal’s famous quote?

With the rising number of cases of school-related violence, especially the horrifying event that happened recently in Ateneo de Zamboanga University, the famous line, “Ang kabataan ay ang pag-asa ng bayan,” could be threatened if these issues aren’t addressed immediately.

In recent weeks, lawmakers have been pushing for a ban on online gaming platforms that may have contributed to the recent school shootings. Roblox, a famous video gaming platform, is more likely to be banned because of its features that have violence-related content. Although these claims are evident on the gaming platform, the question still remains—would it solve the root cause? 

This kind of initiative is just a band-aid solution to this problem. There are more issues to be addressed that could totally eliminate the need to ban this gaming platform.

When lawmakers tried targeting the whole application, the Filipino Roblox Developers Association (FRDA) called for a “more targeted response.” When specific content and communities are the problem, these are the only things the authorities should investigate. Therefore, banning the entire game is not the most effective solution to violence.

Beyond the features and controls of Roblox, there are still many games where negative influences can be picked up by children. Game developers argued that abusers targeting children could still perform their intentions through other gaming platforms aside from Roblox. Thus, minors still have access to other platforms that offer these kinds of themes, showing the lack of a targeted approach.

We have had multiple cases of school-related violence before, and many of these cases have been linked to underlying issues such as bullying, harassment, and the lack of intervention from guidance counseling—factors that could be associated with the school shooting that took place in Tacloban City back in June of 2026. 

Another tragic event reportedly took place in Zamboanga City on August 18, 2026. The student involved in the incident entered the school with the firearms owned by his father. It raises questions about how the child passed the security without the personnel having any suspicions. Even though the security personnel and the father of the child are held accountable, the incident still highlights gaps in preventing such tragedies.

Instead of removing video games, authorities should ask what caused these violent actions to happen in the first place. Hence, adequate support and supervision for teenagers are better than removing a place of comfort and leisure.

Banning video games alone is not the real solution to the horrifying cases of school violence, as FRDA argued that an appropriate response should only be practiced on specific servers, and not the entire platform. Even if Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla’s claim says that the suspect recorded the shooting incident from a first-person point of view that has a resemblance to a gun-themed video game, it doesn’t entirely mean that he was trying to emulate a shooting-themed video game.

Game developers do not wish to encourage individuals to “ignore the risk,” but to emphasize that banning video games is not the solution to eliminate school-related violence. As Sen. Bam Aquino noted, several studies show that video games, as an art form and entertainment medium, do not correlate with violence.

As young citizens who are concerned with the safety of our lives, we highlight the fact that it is not necessary to remove video games from children since it does not correlate with violence.

All parents and guardians should be attentive, critical, and vocal about the safety and well-being of their children. 

These cases won’t be solved with a single meeting, but through collaboration among students, families, authorities, and the community–as the saying goes, “It takes a village to raise a child.”

Saving children’s lives won’t be solved by just taking away one platform; it includes identifying problems and risks before they can escalate.