CICC gets ‘GoreBox’ blocked on Steam, Google Play Store

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Searches for 'Gorebox' on Steam and the Play Store will not show the title on either storefront, while trying to directly access the pages of the game on the storefronts will give off errors

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) announced on Tuesday, June 30, that the video game GoreBox has been blocked in the two major storefronts hosting it — Valve’s Steam PC storefront, and Google’s Play Store for Android.

Searches for GoreBox on Steam and the Play Store will not show the title on either storefront, while trying to directly access the pages of GoreBox on the storefronts will give off errors.

The move comes after a Monday meeting with Google Philippines and Google LLC representatives, seeking to restrict access to GoreBox nationwide “until the platform could ensure that minors cannot easily bypass age restrictions to download the application.” It also follows an appeal to Steam to temporarily restrict Philippine access to the game.

“According to the CICC’s Threat Monitoring Center, the restriction prevents users in the Philippines from downloading GoreBox and also renders the game unresponsive beyond its loading screen for those who had installed it before Google implemented the restriction.”

The push to temporarily block the game follows information gathered by police in which one of the children in conflict with the law in the tragic Tacloban shooting incident was found to have been playing GoreBox, which is rated R18+.

In the CICC statement, Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda said they “welcome Google’s decision to work with the Philippine government in promoting a safer online environment especially for our children. With this restriction, we are assured that minors will no longer be able to access such a violent game.”

“This also shows that collaboration between government and tech companies can deliver timely solutions to emerging digital risks,” Aguda added.

“We also laud this action by Steam as it recognizes the need for violent video games such as GoreBox to put in place strict safety measures that protect Filipino children from the possible dangers of repeated exposure to violent content,” said CICC Deputy Executive Director Alvin Navarro. – Rappler.com