"While many of the interactions children will have on Roblox are with other children, like many interactive platforms, there are also adults—including child predators—lurking on Roblox," warns Josh Nelson, campaign director for ParentsTogether, a family-focused nonprofit organization with more than 2.5 million members in the United States.
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Online creeps have infiltrated popular children's game Roblox. Photo: Roblox Shocking scenes of gang rapes and virtual “sex rooms” depicted in a popular children’s video game have ignited calls for parents to educate their children about the threat of online sexual predators.
Parents can limit Roblox to just show a "curated" selection of games which are vetted as suitable for those under 13 - but this is not enabled by default.
Like many games popular among children, Roblox proactively activates content filters based on user age. Roblox not only automatically applies such controls for users under 13, but it maintains features allowing parents to view comprehensive account history and interactions.
This problem isn't unique to Roblox. Far from it. Throughout the online gaming world, wherever games are marketed to children, online predators lurk. Social games like this are often used as a platform to lure children away from the game and onto other platforms: eg., Facebook, Snapchat and even in some cases Skype.
There are many Roblox rumours, fake scare stories, and incorrect advice rife on social media and even in newspapers that demonise the game. However, children can play it safely and enjoyably with little supervision and understanding.
There is a whole world of games for kids to explore. However, some games are a tad violent. Certain games may also include blood. But overall, a little bit of cartoon violence or blood never hurt a child.
But Roblox is facing accusations of child labor exploitation to help it reach those heights. An investigation from People Make Games reveals that the game platform is exploiting young users. That report says Roblox has an estimated 200 million users a month with a core audience aged 9 – 15.
There is a notable absence of any reference to sexualized content in the App Store description of the Roblox App. One could classify some of the avatars as extremely suggestive, if not borderline pornographic.
Roblox, like many predecessors, is a highly addictive online game. While other online games targeted pre-teens and up, this one targets young kids, 7 plus. A vulnerable age group, whose prefrontal brain lobe is not developed and is easily amenable to addictive games and gizmos.
The iTunes Store rates the app as 12+ (advising of “mild/infrequent horror/fear themes”), while the PEGI rating for Android is just 3+, which means that very young children might be able to download and play the game even with parental controls activated on their device or through Google Play.
Six tips to help keep your child safe on RobloxSign up with the correct age. Make sure your child creates an account using the correct age. ... Build a list of age-appropriate games. Not all games on Roblox will be appropriate for your child. ... Explore communication settings.
Roblox encourages users to interact through its Chat & Party function. All chat is filtered, which means inappropriate language is replaced by hashtag symbols. Chatting in accounts of kids under 13 is more heavily filtered. Roblox also employs human monitors who keep an eye out for inappropriate language and content.
As per ESRB, Roblox is E10+ rated, which means it can be played by everyone above the age of 10.
Its beta version, DynaBlocks, was launched in 2004. It was renamed to Roblox in 2005, due to the name being hard to remember.
202 millionRoblox monthly active users As of April 2021, Roblox has 202 million monthly active users, according to estimates from RTrack.