Is Roblox Corp. deliberately curating inappropriate content to young users? At least one parent suspects this is the case, and she took to Twitter to voice her concerns.
Twitter user @Arumi_Kai begins a lengthy thread with a post by stating “Alright, I’m done. DONE. I deleted my kids’ Roblox accounts, and recommend you guys do too.”
Alright, I’m done. DONE.
I deleted my kids’ Roblox accounts, and recommend you guys do too.
I just spent six hours playing the games meant for 5-year-olds and it was freaking awful.
Something is very wrong with Roblox Corp.
Screenshots/video to follow.
— Carolyn Velociraptor needs a nap (@Arumi_kai) January 4, 2023
She goes on to say that “Look, I don’t subscribe to the “violent video games cause bad kids” theory (which has been disproven). This isn’t about that.” Rather, it’s about Roblox “manually” curating content for kids that by rights should never make it past the game’s age-gating measures.
Roblox has three tiers for its content: 13+, 9+, and “All ages” for content for ages 5-8. Roblox moderators curate content at each tier. @Arumi_Kai points out, however, that she kept her account as well as her kids accounts set at the maximum level of parental restriction, and that until recently this meant only around 2 thousand Roblox games were available.
But she adds that “this changed a few months ago” when “a HUGE number of games earned the ‘All Ages’ tag.”
Subsequently she decided to do a little digging with an eye out for games that featured microtransactions and pay-to-win mechanics in games aimed toward children. What she found instead was something much worse, according to her. She says in the thread “I didn’t expect to find weird pedo stuff and bathroom voyeur games and suicidal idealization.”
@Arumi_Kai points to “bathroom simulator” games on the Roblox platform as being the most egregious example of inappropriate content in games that were curated for the younger age tiers.
THESE ARE GAMES FOR 5 YEAR OLDS.
There are 3,000 kids playing this particular bathroom game at any one time.
It took less than a minute for this to start happening once my character was stuck in the puddle.
(CW, for… uhh… Roblox non-con?) pic.twitter.com/3Mhj6v5EGB
— Carolyn Velociraptor needs a nap (@Arumi_kai) January 4, 2023
She adds, “It wasn’t just one player. Which makes me wonder if this is a feature, not a bug. I played this particular bathroom game for less than twenty minutes.”
@Arumi_Kai summarizes her Roblox experience saying, “I’ve been wondering why Roblox would suddenly approve thousands of games (especially NSFW-ish games like RP worlds) for kids age 8 & under…but when you delve deeper into Roblox Corp’s abysmal exploitation of its content creators, the answer becomes pretty clear – profit.”
You can view the entire thread here.
So what are your thoughts on this? Do you think Roblox is actively curating inappropriate content for children and curtailing its own safety measures for the sake of profit? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
Featured image via Xbox.com.
