On Roblox, Pinoy kids preyed on by violent extremists

A message arrived on the group chat of seven 15-year-olds in Calamba, Laguna, coming from a “friend” they met on Roblox. It contained a link.

- By ELIJAH FELICE ROSALES

They locked the doors to their room, hooked wireless headsets to their phones, pushed an earpiece to the left, to the right, and clicked the link.

Now they knew how to shoot their schoolmates. But the plan was to wait until the foundation day of their school on Feb. 16, so that everyone would be there — schoolmates, teachers, parents.

Their plan was thwarted when, on Feb. 2, members of the Philippine National Police came knocking on their doors. Based on the PNP case file shared with The STAR, the police told the parents the alarming things their children had been searching on the web.

The web history in question: images and videos of mass shooting; how to use a fire extinguisher for flash blinding; how to make homemade bombs; natural selection; Hitler emblems — the kind that would make any parent question where they went wrong.

They also had their statement outfits ready. They were planning to wear shirts bearing the phrase “Natural Selection,” referencing Eric Harris — one of the two shooters behind the 1999 massacre at the Columbine High School in Colorado.

They had also informed their “friend” from Roblox that they would die by suicide after the mass shooting, in another nod to Harris and his co-perpetrator Dylan Klebold, as both killed themselves after murdering 13 people and wounding 21 others.

What the seven teenagers were up to online was shared as a tip to the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) by foreign counterparts. The seven were exchanging messages with a certain individual on Facebook. The conversations were waving red flags — instructionals on aiming a gun and links to brutal videos.

Following police intervention, the seven turned over their phones for digital forensics, as authorized by their parents through an affidavit of consent.