Whether the country’s juvenile justice law should be rewritten to hold younger children criminally accountable is a question President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. says he is not ready to answer without input from those who study how young minds work.
Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, which fell on Sunday in Manila, the President framed the debate as one that hinges on evidence about how much children today differ from earlier generations. Any decision to move the threshold downward, he said, would rest on the assumption that “children have changed from before.”
Marcos left room for that possibility while stopping short of endorsing it. “I’m not saying that’s not the case. It’s possible. The world has changed. Their exposure to social media has changed,” he said. What remains unsettled, in his view, is what actually drives certain minors toward violence, and that gap is where he wants specialists to focus.
“I’m not sure how that will work. We have to study it further. Our child psychologists, the surveys being conducted, the mental health of children, that must be carefully studied,” he added.
Present law draws the line at 15. Under the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, anyone 15 or younger cannot be held criminally liable, and those between 15 and 18 face liability only when it is shown they acted with discernment. A 2013 amendment through Republic Act No. 10630 revisited the statute but kept that age intact, turning back earlier attempts to reduce it. The current push, according to Manila Bulletin, would set the floor at 12.
The renewed interest follows the June 22 shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, where two Grade 9 students aged 14 and 15 allegedly opened fire, killing three classmates and wounding roughly 20 others. Rappler reported that the firearms used were a 9mm Glock 17 registered to the 14-year-old’s aunt, a police non-commissioned officer since relieved from duty, and a .38 caliber revolver traced to a Cebu City security agency. The older suspect has been charged; the younger falls below the age at which charges can be filed.
Marcos tied the broader problem to what children absorb through screens, singling out violent games as content capable of dulling young people’s sense that harm carries consequences. He indicated openness to prohibiting titles shown to blunt that sensitivity, telling reporters the government would move against games that “are responsible for the desensitization of our children to violence.”
One such game has already been pulled. The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center ordered a temporary block on GoreBox after investigators found one of the Tacloban suspects had been playing it. The 2023 sandbox release, available on mobile and through Steam, is built around graphic combat and carries an 18-and-older rating; its developer, Felix Filip, told a Senate committee it was never meant for minors.
The President said consultations with experts on the effects of social media, online violence, and pornography on children would continue before the administration commits to any sweeping policy shift.
