“Loners” and “introverted” minors who are heavy screen users are the usual targets of extremist “groomers” exploiting gaming platforms to radicalize children and encourage them to commit violence, the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group told a Senate panel on Wednesday.

As of 1 July, the number of minors rescued from online predators who urged them to engage in self-harm or violence towards others had risen to 24 from 19 in April.

The latest figure resulted from 17 rescue operations carried out by the PNP-ACG since October last year.

PNP-ACG deputy director for Administration Richmond Tadina said the rescued minors had one thing in common: they were isolated and were “engaged in the long use of cellphones.”

All of them were also “exposed” to Gorebox, a physics-based sandbox video game blamed by police for contributing to the 22 June fatal shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City where three students were killed and 20 others were wounded.

“All of them manifested that they were members of the True Crime Community. This is the community [where] they have one interest, which is violent extremism,” Tadina explained to the Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality which is investigating the alarming reports of nihilistic violent extremism in the country, including the recent school shooting.