The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and online gaming platform Roblox have agreed to work together to better protect children from harmful content and people who may try to exploit them online.
Roblox committed to improving age checks, helping Philippine authorities investigate cases faster, and strengthening its systems for finding harmful content.
The agreement follows concerns that children may encounter violent content, online grooming, and people attempting to exploit or influence them through gaming platforms and private online groups.
Roblox and the government will create a technical working group to study different ways of checking a user’s age. These may include estimating age through a person’s face, checking government-issued IDs, and possibly using the Philippine Identification System, or PhilSys.
These measures could help prevent children from accessing features or content that are not suitable for their age.
Roblox also agreed to quickly provide relevant information to authorized Philippine agencies, as long as requests follow the law and proper legal procedures. The information could help investigators collect evidence and build cases involving Filipino users.
Philippine authorities will continue to use Roblox’s Kodex Law Enforcement Portal. The online system allows authorized agencies to contact Roblox at any time about investigations and legal requests.
Roblox will also assign an officer who will work directly with Philippine authorities, including the NBI. This is expected to reduce delays when agencies need information or assistance.
The company is also willing to improve its safety systems so they can better recognize harmful Filipino words, phrases, and content. This could help Roblox spot threats that systems designed mainly for other languages may overlook.
DICT and the NBI will also monitor harmful activities that move from one online platform to another. The government and Roblox may bring together other companies and groups to discuss more ways to keep children safe online.
“These are concrete commitments. Now, the focus is on implementation,” DICT Henry Aguda said. “We are taking a platform-by-platform approach. Roblox is one step. We are also looking at other platforms where children and young people spend their time online.”
The DICT plans to meet with Discord next as part of the government’s wider child online safety campaign.
Roblox currently employs about 300 Filipinos and said it may hire more workers as its operations in the region grow.
Officials from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), National Telecommunications Commission, Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, Congress, and Office of the Executive Secretary also attended.