MANILA, Philippines — Graphic videos of school shootings and extreme violence could soon become harder to access through Globe’s network as the telecommunications giant moves to expand its online safety safeguards following renewed alarm over violent content involving minors.
The move comes just days after the deadly August 18 school shooting at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University Junior High School campus, an attack that was partly livestreamed online and quickly triggered a national debate over school security, firearms, social media and the circulation of disturbing footage involving children.
Globe said it is expanding its network-level protections to block online material depicting school shootings and other forms of extreme violence, adding another category of harmful content to a system the company has already used against child sexual abuse and exploitation material.
The telecom company has described proactive blocking as a longstanding part of its online-safety strategy. In 2025 alone, Globe said its systems blocked 438,446 domains and URLs containing child sexual abuse and exploitation material, demonstrating the scale of the infrastructure it already operates for filtering illegal and harmful content.
But the Zamboanga tragedy has pushed the debate far beyond telecommunications.
A Shooting That Did Not Stay Inside the School
Authorities said a student entered the Zamboanga school carrying firearms on the morning of August 18 and fatally shot another student before dying himself. Part of the attack was broadcast online using a body-worn camera, allowing disturbing footage surrounding the incident to circulate rapidly across social media.
The livestreaming element became one of the most troubling aspects of the case.
What might once have remained a crime scene witnessed only by people inside the campus was suddenly capable of reaching thousands—or potentially millions—of screens almost immediately.
That prompted the Department of Education to appeal directly to journalists, vloggers, content creators and ordinary social-media users not to repost videos, photographs or other sensitive material showing the attack or its aftermath.
DepEd warned that repeatedly circulating such material could deepen the trauma experienced by students, teachers and grieving families.
“Let us choose compassion over clicks,” the department said as it appealed for restraint.
Globe Steps Into the Content-Control Debate
Globe’s decision adds another layer to the response.
Instead of relying only on social-media companies to remove graphic material after it has already been uploaded or reported, network-level blocking could potentially prevent customers from reaching websites or online destinations identified as carrying prohibited content.
The approach is not completely new for Globe.
The company has already invested millions of dollars in content-filtering and blocking technology primarily aimed at combating child sexual abuse and exploitation material. Its 2025 integrated report said it had invested more than US$2.7 million in advanced content-filtering and blocking systems.
The expansion into school-shooting and extreme-violence material reflects the growing concern that online platforms do not simply document violent incidents—they can also amplify them long after the immediate danger has passed.
Still, blocking graphic footage addresses only one part of the problem.
The Bigger Debate: Social Media, Guns and Young People
The Zamboanga attack has triggered discussions in government over three separate but interconnected issues: how minors use social media, how firearms are stored and accessed, and how schools protect students from potential attackers.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian has renewed calls for stronger protections for children online, including proposals restricting younger teenagers’ access to social-media platforms.
Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla and other officials have focused on the firearms used in the attack and the responsibility of gun owners to prevent minors from gaining access to weapons.
Investigators have been examining how the student obtained the firearms and managed to bring weapons onto campus.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered authorities to investigate the shooting and identify measures that could prevent similar attacks.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara has also cautioned against treating school security as simply a matter of installing more cameras, metal detectors or guards, emphasizing the importance of wider community involvement and preventive interventions.
The Second Major Warning in Two Months
The Zamboanga shooting was particularly alarming because it followed another deadly Philippine school shooting only weeks earlier.
Reuters reported that it was the second school shooting in the country in less than two months, an unusual pattern in a nation where such attacks have historically been rare.
That sequence has transformed what could have been treated as an isolated security failure into a much broader national conversation.
The Commission on Human Rights has called for stronger school-safety and child-protection mechanisms while emphasizing the need to investigate how young people obtain access to firearms. It has also highlighted psychosocial support and coordinated action among schools, government agencies, families and communities.
Blocking the Video Is Easier Than Solving the Cause
Globe’s expanded filtering could reduce the exposure of children and other internet users to some of the most disturbing material produced by violent incidents.
It may also make it more difficult for graphic recordings of killings to remain accessible long after social-media platforms remove the original uploads.
But the development highlights a much harder question.
A telecommunications company can attempt to block a violent video.
A social-media platform can delete an account.
Schools can tighten security.
Parents can lock away firearms.
Lawmakers can impose new restrictions.
Yet none of those measures alone explains why a young person would decide to carry out extreme violence—or why an attack would be livestreamed for an online audience in the first place.
That is why the aftermath of the Zamboanga shooting is increasingly becoming about more than one horrific day inside one Philippine school.
It is turning into a test of how the country deals with the collision of youth violence, firearm access, algorithm-driven social media, graphic online content and school safety.
And as Globe begins closing one digital door to violent material, the more difficult task for government, technology companies, schools and families may be figuring out how to stop the next violent act before there is anything to block.
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