Roblox CEO tells parents to keep kids off the platform if safety is a concern

[Alfonso Maruccia]

In brief: Roblox has been heavily criticized for its (lack of) policy on younger players in the past. In a recent interview, the company's lead said that parents should always have the final word on what their children are allowed to play.

Parents concerned about the content or interactions their children might encounter on Roblox should keep them off the platform. Company co-founder and CEO Dave Baszucki delivered this seemingly counterintuitive message in a recent BBC interview, stating that the company is doing all it can to ensure Roblox remains a child-safe virtual environment and game world.

Baszucki expressed trust in parents to make sound decisions regarding online game safety and confidence in the effectiveness of Roblox's safety tools and parental controls. The company contends that even one bad incident is too many and claims to monitor the platform for potentially dangerous behaviors continuously.

Moderators remain vigilant for bullying, harassment, and other negative behaviors that require filtering. Baszucki mentioned that the platform routinely conducts behavior analysis behind the scenes. Management will take action and involve law enforcement if necessary. Players who choose not to behave civilly can face temporary suspensions or permanent bans.

In November, Roblox introduced new safety measures, restricting access to social hangouts and non-rated content for players under 13. Additionally, the platform now requires creators to rate content appropriately for its intended audience. Still, parents must stay informed and alert to their children's online activity.

Last year, Roblox averaged over 80 million daily players, outpacing the PlayStation Network and Nintendo Switch Online combined. Around 40 percent of these players are under 13. The broadcaster demonstrated how, despite the new controls and safety measures, the platform can still expose younger users to inappropriate situations.

The BBC created two fake accounts, one aged 15 and one 27, exchanging messages between the two about going elsewhere to chat or play more adult games. The automated system caught these conversations, but the reporters still figured out a way to communicate the same idea without getting filtered.

Baszucki claimed the example proves how safe Roblox has become. Ill-intentioned people know and understand the rules enough to suggest other platforms to share illicit material or have adult conversations.

"We don't condone any type of image-sharing on our own platform, and you'll see us getting more and more, I think, way beyond where the law is on this type of behaviour," Baszucki said.

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Roblox CEO tells parents to keep kids off the platform if safety is a concern

 

[amghwk]

The onus and final say is on the parents. Can't blame a software for it.

It's like trying to ban DOOM or PornHub because children are exposed to adult theme.

Yes, it will be helpful, but it's not going to happen. Money talks.

 

[Notmare]

I couldn't agree more. Our kids are our responsibilities, not anyone else's. It's our jobs as parents is to make informed decisions and ultimately manage our kids online interactions by controlling what they can and can't do online.

I'd heard enough horror stories about the seedier side of Roblox that my kids haven't ever touched the platform. I'll continue to play Minecraft and other games with them myself and with their friends.

Our kids are still learning and developing their social skills. I'm find the best way to help is to play with them and set an example for how I want to be treated when playing games together.

 

[yRaz]

You can't expect the rest of the world to take care of your kids if you don't want to.

 

[opckieran]

As a 90’s kid, it blows my mind how often “parents” (a misnomer; most of todays’ parents are just glorified babysitters who don’t have what it takes to parent. Instead of teaching children how to manage their emotions in a healthy way, they just give them happy pills because it’s more convenient!) will just shove a tablet in front of a kid’s face for HOURS A DAY. And then they get surprised when those kids act out, or wander into a bad part of the internet, or gets in contact with who the hell knows.

 

[scavengerspc]

About time a company made a stand. It is not realistic to expect a private,
for profit company to be responsible for 80 million users. I wish more companies
would shove the responsibility back in parents faces, where it belongs.

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

Good for you Roblox raise your gauntlet and tell it like it is.

 

[Arthurik_jan]

Alright, hear me out on this. I reckon in games like Roblox, Minecraft or somewhere else if the player chooses to enter a section of the game, or a game mode where he can be exposed to:

- other user's generated content

- voice and text chat

an ID verification system should be implemented, much like PayPal with credit cards, but for ID's. Same thing should go for parts of games where one would decide to play any online competitive ranked PvP mode with any form of skill/experience-based matchmaking, where cheating, smurfing and other forms of unwanted harmful behaviour can seriously ruin any enjoyment and perceived fairness of the game.

By this I mean let's say you want to play Fortnite, Apex, COD Warzone, GTA: Online, Rocket League or etc., nothing should be required of you, if you are just playing casually, using built in quips and pinging your enemies and situations using the in-game radial comms menu, or not interacting with user-generated/unchecked/unrated content.

You could still create your own private games and do whatever you want in them with your friends without this registration being needed, but if you want any of the aforementioned systems/features/modes in public games with random players, this ID verification system would solve a plethora of unwanted behaviour and make online play much safer, where it needs to be. Online interaction moderation would then become much cheaper to maintain with clear and effective means to punish those who break the rules.

If one is a minor, then the system would have one of the parents put down his ID and link his child's account to his account allowing the minor to enter into these interactions freely with the possibility of the game contacting/informing/punishing the guardian account if anything were to be reported against this minor's account hence effectively punishing any unwanted behaviour.

This way, any form of cheating, smurfing, griefing, online harassment or CP would be eradicated from places where they don't belong. Any permanent ban could then be enforced on the offender regardless of which account/hardware/IP he uses. Unless the user somehow creates a new account with another or fake ID, which would be criminal and so not likely/worth it.

Any thoughts?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I agree on principle, parents have outsourced the raising of their kids to the internet and that is a terrible idea.

but......

Roblox has made a pointed attempt to ignore problems being brought to their attention unless the media gets involved. Whether it be PDFfiles or gore or other heinous content, Roblox will do nothing until there's a call to action from large influential sources.

Alright, hear me out on this. I reckon in games like Roblox, Minecraft or somewhere else if the player chooses to enter a section of the game, or a game mode where he can be exposed to:

- other user's generated content

- voice and text chat

an ID verification system should be implemented, much like PayPal with credit cards, but for ID's. Same thing should go for parts of games where one would decide to play any online competitive ranked PvP mode with any form of skill/experience-based matchmaking, where cheating, smurfing and other forms of unwanted harmful behaviour can seriously ruin any enjoyment and perceived fairness of the game.

By this I mean let's say you want to play Fortnite, Apex, COD Warzone, GTA: Online, Rocket League or etc., nothing should be required of you, if you are just playing casually, using built in quips and pinging your enemies and situations using the in-game radial comms menu, or not interacting with user-generated/unchecked/unrated content.

You could still create your own private games and do whatever you want in them with your friends without this registration being needed, but if you want any of the aforementioned systems/features/modes in public games with random players, this ID verification system would solve a plethora of unwanted behaviour and make online play much safer, where it needs to be. Online interaction moderation would then become much cheaper to maintain with clear and effective means to punish those who break the rules.

If one is a minor, then the system would have one of the parents put down his ID and link his child's account to his account allowing the minor to enter into these interactions freely with the possibility of the game contacting/informing/punishing the guardian account if anything were to be reported against this minor's account hence effectively punishing any unwanted behaviour.

This way, any form of cheating, smurfing, griefing, online harassment or CP would be eradicated from places where they don't belong. Any permanent ban could then be enforced on the offender regardless of which account/hardware/IP he uses. Unless the user somehow creates a new account with another or fake ID, which would be criminal and so not likely/worth it.

Any thoughts?

No, we dont need any more ideas from three letter agencies nor do we need to give any more power to online operators. That system will IMMEDIATELY be abused and hacked to expose even more information.

 

[yRaz]

Any thoughts?

I don't think more government regulation is the answer to an individual's lack of ability to parent. Frankly, I'm surprised it's legal for anyone to just "make a person." But the rest of us shouldn't suffer because parents want to just hand their kids an iPad or a phone instead of just, you know, being a parent. If someone needs the rest of the world to take care of their kids then maybe they shouldn't be having kids?

And, finally, the world is full of horrible people. A parents job is to prepare their child to navigate a world full of predators, not pretend that that world doesn't exist until they're an adult and the child has to figure this stuff out for themself.

 

[Vanderlinde]

I couldn't agree more. Our kids are our responsibilities, not anyone else's. It's our jobs as parents is to make informed decisions and ultimately manage our kids online interactions by controlling what they can and can't do online.

I'd heard enough horror stories about the seedier side of Roblox that my kids haven't ever touched the platform. I'll continue to play Minecraft and other games with them myself and with their friends.

Our kids are still learning and developing their social skills. I'm find the best way to help is to play with them and set an example for how I want to be treated when playing games together.

Bottom point is; the internet is a predators playground and kids should be protected from this.

It starts with education towards children. There are too many parents just giving a device for a child to play on so that mother or father can spend time on their social media too.

I'm above my 40's, and I feel like me and others are within the last generation of who grew up without all this nonsense. Trust me you feel so much better if you simply disconnect from all this social media bullshit.

 

[DrSuess]

"Roblox CEO tells parents to keep kids off the platform if safety is a concern."

Commonsense statement, it is ultimately the parents responsibility to know what their kids are doing online, and what they are doing in general to ensure they remain safe and don't engage in dangerous activities. Instead of doing this a lot of parents like to point fingers at anyone but themselves and sue people without taking any personal responsibility for their shortcommings.

 

[ZedRM]

Well, well, well. What do you freaken know. A business caring more about profit then about public safely. What a shocker..

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Well, well, well. What do you freaken know. A business caring more about profit then about public safely. What a shocker..

Do you want corporations to be the ones responsible for raising your children? That's how we got here.

 

[Mister_K]

Outside of parent controls such as chat mute, you as a parent need to step up...

 

[ZedRM]

Do you want corporations to be the ones responsible for raising your children? That's how we got here.

Outside of parent controls such as chat mute, you as a parent need to step up...

Nice implied insult. Of course it's our job as parents to protect our kids. That does not ever excuse companies from taking proper, necessary steps and precautions to protect the children they market their products to from the predatory scum of the world.

Roblox has effectively said: "Not our problem, your kids have to fend for themselves." It has the effect of making Roblox just as predatory as the the lowlife scum which target the kids using their product.

 

[yRaz]

Nice implied insult. Of course it's our job as parents to protect our kids. That does not ever excuse companies from taking proper, necessary steps and precautions to protect the children they market their products to from the predatory scum of the world.

Roblox has effectively said: "Not our problem, your kids have to fend for themselves." It has the effect of making Roblox just as predatory as the the lowlife scum which target the kids using their product.

No, they're basically saying "it's impossible to moderate 100% of our platform 100% of the time and if that's an issue, take your business elsewhere."

 

[kiwigraeme]

Nice implied insult. Of course it's our job as parents to protect our kids. That does not ever excuse companies from taking proper, necessary steps and precautions to protect the children they market their products to from the predatory scum of the world.

Roblox has effectively said: "Not our problem, your kids have to fend for themselves." It has the effect of making Roblox just as predatory as the the lowlife scum which target the kids using their product.

having skimmed the article - seems Roblox is making efforts. Really law of diminishing returns

Not sure if have super safe settings , curated areas

Where ever the kids are - creeps will follow

I think these topics have a lot of hysteria - think of the kids - start gun training at 2 years old /s

While society as a whole want to do a cop-out

More support for parents - is wasteful WOKE/DEI spending
How many services can young parents get in your country ?

Allow Maga-Corps to advertise and tell kids they are deficient - too fat , too ugly , not cool , too whatevah

But regulating advertising and content from corps is too woke to dei or whatever too commie

I keep saying ignoring under 10 year olds most kids smarter and more aware on the internet than droves of low educated boomers being scammed daily , swallowing endless lies ( no critical thinking , no internal logic consistency ) I still see adverts when checking rightwing propaganda channels - still swallowing ivermectin , probably bleach . Just feed your kids this and won't get measles , or better yet have a measles party

How you going to control what a teen has access to - home school them with no internet - when those kids hit the real world they are easy marks - they have a huge red flag on their head when the hit the big smoke - scammers/creeps can see them 50 yards away ( Charles Manson Fodder )

as much as MAGA hate woke schools educating their kids with regards to sexuality and dangers of pornography etc - I highly doubt most of those parents say anything but controlling to their kids - Masturbation - that's a sin.

The most messed up kids often come from highly controlled environments - Seen it in my travels, women get most sexual harassment in more repressive countries and USA is now entering an openly repressive phase - hell stop transgenic cancer research as scary "trans" word in title - 25% of americans will believe that fully , no matter how many times you explain it to them - don't understand any of that , just know trans mice just ain't right there are only 2 options male, female and only one sexuality

If you really worried about the kids you won't care about looking after the world , not rejoicing in droves turning off water and food in USAID refugee camps - but most Maga are loving that and laughing about Panama , 51st state , Greenland

all the comments on TS rejoicing less safe drinking water , environment - sack those people - think of the children as you steal their birth rights just for laughs and selfish greed

 

[ZedRM]

No, they're basically saying "it's impossible to moderate 100% of our platform 100% of the time and if that's an issue, take your business elsewhere."

Yes, very good, you catch on fast! And that's the point. If they can not or will not employ proper measures to moderate the publicly interactive parts of their product, those parts need to go. If they want to make a product that is directly marketed to children, they are obligated to ensure that all aspects of that product are safe for the children they are marketing to. They otherwise do not deserve to be in business.

having skimmed the article - seems Roblox is making efforts. Really law of diminishing returns

Not good enough. I'm not wasting my time with the rest of your wall of text...

 

[yRaz]

Yes, very good, you catch on fast! And that's the point. If they can not or will not employ proper measures to moderate the publicly interactive parts of their product, those parts need to go. If they want to make a product that is directly marketed to children, they are obligated to ensure that all aspects of that product are safe for the children they are marketing to. They otherwise do not deserve to be in business.


Not good enough. I'm not wasting my time with the rest of your wall of text...

I think you're missing what I'm saying. It's impossible to moderate 100% of any platform 100% of the time. Schools can't keep kids safe 100% of the time, are you suggesting that kids shouldn't goto school? I see Roblox as being honest about the state of any online media. Xbox and Playstation are marketed towards kids, are you suggesting they shouldn't exist, either? There are always going to be bad actors, there are good people who can become malicious without warning at any time, what do we do about them? There are people who spend months, even years, pursuing potential victims, what solution is there for that?

 

[ZedRM]

I think you're missing what I'm saying.

Maybe, or maybe I saw right through and you missing the point. Let's see.

It's impossible to moderate 100% of any platform 100% of the time.

While that might seem like a fair point, where adults are concerned people are expected to be aware enough take care of themselves. Where children are concerned, they don't have that ability as a rule.

Schools can't keep kids safe 100% of the time

They do a reasonable job of it and Police have a presence in our schools and actively patrol and protect them, most of the time. Roblox is not employing Police to actively patrol their platform. From what I've read, they barely do anything and that's not good enough.

are you suggesting that kids shouldn't goto school?

I will accept that as pedantic.

I see Roblox as being honest about the state of any online media.

Honest? Maybe. Diligent? Not at all.

Xbox and Playstation are marketed towards kids, are you suggesting they shouldn't exist, either?

Incorrect, XBox and Playstation are sold widely to everyone. They are not specifically marketed to children. And THEY both have effective controls in place to govern how users interact. Nintendo markets toward children more and they are well known for making they platform extremely safe for kids, to the point of annoying everyone else with the levels of safeguards they use. Roblox markets specifically to children and because of that need to remove the parts of their product line up that present ANY potential danger to those kids.

There are always going to be bad actors, there are good people who can become malicious without warning at any time, what do we do about them?

Simple, we remove, where ever possible avenues of access and attack. We remove the opportunity to do harm.

There are people who spend months, even years, pursuing potential victims, what solution is there for that?

You're getting out of scope here. This is about Roblox and their stance on offering protections for kids that are their target audience and their seemingly inability and unwillingness to do so. In this context the solution is clear, if they can't or won't actively and effectively protect the kids using their platform, they need to modify/remove the offending features to remove the danger factor. This is not rocket science.

 

[yRaz]

You're getting out of scope here. This is about Roblox and their stance on offering protections for kids that are their target audience and their seemingly inability and unwillingness to do so. In this context the solution is clear, if they can't or won't actively and effectively protect the kids using their platform, they need to modify/remove the offending features to remove the danger factor. This is not rocket science.

The danger factor in this instance is that there are kids using the platform. Any platform with kids using it WILL attract bad actors trying to take advantage of kids. Roblox does moderate its platform, but the fact that it is predominantly used by kids means that it attracts more bad actors looking to target kids than other platforms. If Roblox shut down today another platform would open up tomorrow. The kids would move to it and the bad actors would follow them. The bad actors would use lies and deceit to work their way onto it, just like they do on Roblox now.

At somepoint, the parents have to take some personal responsibility for their children and monitor what they're doing online. What Roblox is saying is "we can protect your kids from 99% of what happens online but you have to cover that last 1%. If you don't want to cover that last 1% then you need to take your kids off our platform."

This isn't a "we're too lazy to find a solution" type thing, it's a game of cat and mouse. They build a better mouse trap and then world creates a smarter mouse. This is a problem that will always exist. We can throw predators in jail, but the world will just create more predators to take their place.

While this is a tragic problem, taking a stance of absolutes is just silly. For parents who want to take a stance of absolutes, Roblox is clarifying that those parents are 100% within their rights to remove their kids from the platform if they feel that Roblox isn't doing enough. They aren't just clarifying it, they are openly suggesting it which will impact their profits. One could argue that Roblox has failed their fiduciary duty to investors with this statement and has opened themselves up to legal issues outside that of those involving children.

They only true solution to this problem is to prevent children from interacting with any internet connected service and I just don't see that as practical for anyone involved.

 

[DrSuess]

Well, well, well. What do you freaken know. A business caring more about profit then about public safely. What a shocker..

Well, well. What do you know parents are not being proactive at monitoring their kids online activity. Parents are the ones responsible for their child's online activity. Corporations aren't the ones that should be policing people's kids. Roblox only needs to comply with state and federal regulations which may not be adequate to keep kids safe. So the parents are the first line and the last line in the own child's safety and should step and monitor their kids instead of giving them electronics to keep them occupied and out of their way.

 

[RudyBob]

May as well give the kids a joint it does the same as screen time and costs less

 

[ZedRM]

They only true solution to this problem is to prevent children from interacting with any internet connected service and I just don't see that as practical for anyone involved.

No, the true solution is not to provide a mechanism for predators easy access to children.