There’s been many complaints filed against Roblox having to do with the fact that Roblox doesn’t do enough to protect children against online predators. Some countries including: Iraq, Qatar, Turkey, and more have even gone the distance to ban Roblox because of the safety concerns for minors. Based on all the events happening lately, Roblox isn’t safe for children.
For players, the game is getting more than alarming to play because of the recent incidents and how Roblox is responding to them. According to a freshman and long-time Roblox player Lani Ojerio, it’s always been an unsafe and unmonitored game, but lately she’s been noticing more unsettling incidents.
Some ways exploitation happens is adults try to contact minors and lure them to meet them. Another thing that may happen is someone older will message the younger player privately through connections. These connections give people access to message each other privately through the game.
One recent incident Ojerio witnessed happened on the type chat, she claims she saw an older player trying to get a child’s age and other information. Even when she was younger, she witnessed children getting exploited, but recently she’s been seeing more incidents that are related to the Roblox connections, which were formerly known as friends. Ojerio does believe that there should be more security related to connections and changes in how reporting people works, specifically against people who are exploiting children. She also believes Roblox has the chance and ability to protect kids on Roblox.
Another Roblox player, freshman Joshua Garcia shared his concern of Roblox and its child safety issues. Garcia shared that he has also felt uncomfortable while playing Roblox because of the recent events that have happened on Roblox. He has witnessed older men talking to children on the voice chat. Not all, but some of these older players would threaten the children and claim that they know the kids’ address.
It’s difficult to find and prosecute these predators on Roblox that use voice chat and the regular chat because of how hard it is for Roblox to completely moderate it. Many different games have open chats like Roblox, but it’s one of the most popular games for people to use because of how many children use the app and how they can easily get away with things that go against Roblox’s community guidelines. According to a spokesperson from Roblox on NBC NEWS “the spokesperson cited the “vast resources” Roblox dedicates to supporting a safe platform and the rigorous safeguards it has”, this shows how dedicated Roblox is to keeping Roblox safe. Even with these safeguards in play, Garcia has witnessed predators using Roblox to threaten to find young kids addresses and other personal information.
Syn Hall, one of the Campus Safety Associates (CSAs), also shared her concerns about children’s safety on Roblox. Hall brought up a great point: online platforms aren’t doing nearly enough when it comes to informing parents about child safety when it comes to playing their game.
“Their parents really need to educate themselves,” Syn said. “A lot of training and workshops with lots of languages for parents.”
She believes that Roblox could also prevent these incidents by teaching parents about the recent incidents that have been happening and also show them what they could do to teach their kids safety.
There’ve been incidents of predators luring children on Roblox. One example of this is a case happening in Louisiana. According to NBC NEWS, the suit filed against Roblox alleges that a man was using voice changing technology to change his voice into a female voice and used it to lure and sexually exploit children using Roblox. The lawsuit against Roblox doesn’t exactly specify the damages but wants Roblox to keep their children safe.
Roblox’s child safety issues are becoming more of a concern for both the players and worried adults alike, and there’s many things that Roblox could do to make the game safer that they have failed to do so far. Roblox needs to put a stopping block on the lurkers waiting for children. Until Roblox can make changes that help children stop getting taken advantage of, it’s no longer a safe game for children to play.
