I’m very against Roblox. I know a kid who had a really hard time with online predators and a lot of it stated with Roblox. He’s 19 now. He and I were talking about it recently.
Parents think Roblox is like Minecraft bc of the aesthetics of the game. But, Roblox is not a game with a chat feature, it’s a chat room with some games. That’s a big difference.
They have 380 million users. Around 60% of the user base is under the age of 16. 40% is under the age of 12. That’s 152 million mostly unmonitored kids.
I’m sure Roblox has gotten better moderation during that time, but in our experience predators meet kids on Roblox and get them to exchange Discord or other contact info with them.
Discord is also a problem here, but that’s for another rant in another thread. If you are concerned about your kids and want to discuss it with me, feel free to message me.
TLDR: DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS PLAY ROBLOX unless you are actively monitoring the game.
A friend’s 8 year old daughter was asking to play Roblox recently and they reached out to me since it’s in my current area of study and advised them against it due to the lack of responsibility that the corporation takes for their users.
I suggested that they introduce her to Vintage Story on a self hosted server instead. That way, they can control who has access and content.
I’m actually surprised at how many parents let their kids play Roblox unmonitored. I mean, why not let them go to the playground unmonitored instead?
The younger kid’s chat is disabled. not allowed to friend anyone.
The older kid has chat enabled, but is only allowed to friend people we vet.
Computers are in an open area, chats have been keylogged, we check occasionally.
If friends show up unanounced, or they chat where they’re not supposed to, they lose internet access long enough to regret it
When they get old enough to have friends online, we contact the parents, make sure they’re compatible politically, theologogically, just generally not extremists and their kids have some base level of dicipline and are safety minded.
We also semi-regularly play with them and set rules about the appropriateness of the games in relation to the kids ages. The younger one’s don’t get to play the violent ones.
We have a 15 minute conversation to find out if they’re batshit crazy slur calling racist trumpeters because we dont need to subject our kids to that shit.
I find it insane that you wouldn’t take 15 minutes to get to know who your kids influencers are, but you do you.
There is a vast difference between ascertaining that someone is or is not a racist and asking about their religion and political affiliations. Do you not understand that difference?
d asking about their religion and political affiliations.
To be completely reasonable, I’ve not seen any strong right-wing supporters that are not either deeply racist or don’t care what’s going on with black/brown people right now.
If someone is so far up Fox News’ butt that they think nothing wrong is going on, I sure as FUCK don’t want them recruiting my children.
There is a vast difference between being in a different political affiliation and whatever the fuck is going on right now. I don’t want my kids wrapped up in that bullshit and if you support it, just block me now.
I’m very against Roblox. I know a kid who had a really hard time with online predators and a lot of it stated with Roblox. He’s 19 now. He and I were talking about it recently.
Parents think Roblox is like Minecraft bc of the aesthetics of the game. But, Roblox is not a game with a chat feature, it’s a chat room with some games. That’s a big difference.
They have 380 million users. Around 60% of the user base is under the age of 16. 40% is under the age of 12. That’s 152 million mostly unmonitored kids.
I’m sure Roblox has gotten better moderation during that time, but in our experience predators meet kids on Roblox and get them to exchange Discord or other contact info with them.
Discord is also a problem here, but that’s for another rant in another thread. If you are concerned about your kids and want to discuss it with me, feel free to message me.
TLDR: DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS PLAY ROBLOX unless you are actively monitoring the game.
Quite the opposite.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roblox–Schlep_controversy
A friend’s 8 year old daughter was asking to play Roblox recently and they reached out to me since it’s in my current area of study and advised them against it due to the lack of responsibility that the corporation takes for their users.
I suggested that they introduce her to Vintage Story on a self hosted server instead. That way, they can control who has access and content.
I’m actually surprised at how many parents let their kids play Roblox unmonitored. I mean, why not let them go to the playground unmonitored instead?
That would actually be the safer option imo.
The younger kid’s chat is disabled. not allowed to friend anyone.
The older kid has chat enabled, but is only allowed to friend people we vet.
Computers are in an open area, chats have been keylogged, we check occasionally.
If friends show up unanounced, or they chat where they’re not supposed to, they lose internet access long enough to regret it
When they get old enough to have friends online, we contact the parents, make sure they’re compatible politically, theologogically, just generally not extremists and their kids have some base level of dicipline and are safety minded.
We also semi-regularly play with them and set rules about the appropriateness of the games in relation to the kids ages. The younger one’s don’t get to play the violent ones.
Making sure the parents of your kids friends are compatible politically and theologically sounds incredibly dodgy to me.
I will say this as well: strict parents raise sneaky children
Not from a multi-race household I see.
If little Timmy’s parents start talking about “those kids” my kids isn’t playing with him. Too many racist fucks out there.
This is insane. You call that kid’s mom to ask who she votes for and what name she uses for god, and if it doesn’t match yours, kids can’t have fun?
We have a 15 minute conversation to find out if they’re batshit crazy slur calling racist trumpeters because we dont need to subject our kids to that shit.
I find it insane that you wouldn’t take 15 minutes to get to know who your kids influencers are, but you do you.
There is a vast difference between ascertaining that someone is or is not a racist and asking about their religion and political affiliations. Do you not understand that difference?
To be completely reasonable, I’ve not seen any strong right-wing supporters that are not either deeply racist or don’t care what’s going on with black/brown people right now.
If someone is so far up Fox News’ butt that they think nothing wrong is going on, I sure as FUCK don’t want them recruiting my children.
There is a vast difference between being in a different political affiliation and whatever the fuck is going on right now. I don’t want my kids wrapped up in that bullshit and if you support it, just block me now.