The fully open gleeful embrace of using Roblox to groom future gambling addicts as a path to future revenue streams is so far past damning it screams walking abyss of moral self awareness.
It reads, to me, as so obviously slanted and opinionated against Roblox from the outset. It's not trying to portray facts, it's clearly trying to make the reader interpret the situation in an anti-roblox light, instead of letting the reader arrive there on their own.
It's honestly the same style of writing anytime Fox news reports on any democratic action, or vice versa for other rags. Except this has a nice dose of "think of the children" that further lets them pull on heartstrings.
Again, fuck Roblox and their lack of an ability to improve on these issues, but this is just trash writing and editing.
Talk to me like an adult. Tell me what happened. That doesn't mean sugarcoating it. When I read the quotes and combine that with my existing knowledge of Roblox I can come to my own conclusions just fine.
So you’re saying you have an irrational bias against other people having opinions? Fascinating.
But this is not a Roblox problem it is an internet problem. And I do not know how to solve it except more censorship and control.
If you can't run forums and chats because moderation is too expensive, then don't run 'em. Roblox is like the Pleasure Island in Pinocchio.
Though I think at least in Europe in the middle ages, 15-20 years old for marriage was more common.
That has (almost) always been part of raising children. The important question is, who has control and with what intentions? The intention of roblox they say out in the open, bind kids to their plattform, increase their engagement (addiction) and introduce gambling as soon as legally possible. And pretadors they don't see as a problem despite independent research very much say it is. Trusting them in any way sounds like madness or lack of care. So I am not in a position yet, that I am pressured by my toddler to allow roblox, but he is hooked on minecraft now. Just singleplayer, but also no idea how it works in that universe with public servers. I am not generally against the idea, that adults can talk with kids, but random adults from the internet? No way.
> Polymarket, a cryptoscam-based prediction market
How is this "reporting" even real? Awful article. The interview was so bad that painting roblox in the bad light was the right and objective thing to do, yet they somehow managed to make it look biased.
Is Roblox now as controversial as Epstein news? Don’t mind the (Republican of course) elephant in the room. Vote for Trump. He’s our only hope. He can protect Roblox from the law.
>It's not trying to portray facts
So what? It's a story about an interview.
The story quotes directly from the interview. I watched the interview, and the characterization is accurate. Here's a passage:
Newton: (interjecting) You don’t think you have a problem with predators on the platform.
Baszucki: I think we’re doing an incredible job at innovating relative to the number of people on our platform and the hours, in really leaning into the future of how this is going to work.
>it's clearly trying to make the reader interpret the situation in an anti-roblox light
Yes, I would imagine the thing described as a "pedophile hellscape" should look pretty bad to the average reader. But just so I'm getting this right: the thing you're maddest about is the bad PR for Roblox?
Or if you want the tl;dr, ask an LLM. I think the general sentiment is overt and simple enough that the LLM wouldn’t omit or misrepresent anything important.
When you’re writing about a bad thing, you don’t have to pretend it’s good. Or even neutral. It’s okay to write so that it’s clear that it’s bad.
I mean… how much benefit of the doubt is one expected to give someone who runs a game for kids who sees paedophiles as an ‘opportunity’? Like, this isn’t a criminal trial, it’s a news article. There is no presumption on innocence, and the company’s past is relevant.
To describe this interview as a 'car crash' is almost underselling it. I feel terrified.
Most of all, what are my friends' and relatives' kids getting access to that they don't know about?
[0] Wikipedia says, 'allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users.' That was the extent of my knowledge. It sounds great: very happy for kids to learn how to build things! Sure, I'd prefer they used Lego, but if they have to use mobiles then something where things are built and created is about as healthy as using mobile apps at a young age can be, right?
Nintendo would never turn away money, unless they feel it would damage their reputation as a company you can trust your children with.
If they had believed Roblox was safe, they would have 100% taken that money.
The interview makes me think of Dupont and Tǝflon. "You are giving thousands of people cancer in your community."
"That's alright, think of the millions who love our products."
"Carry on, sir."
There's Doom 3 on the Nintendo Switch... so the lines are a bit blurry.
(But yes I generally agree with your point.)
somebody mentioned nintendo platform, see that for example
Wow, runescape, call of duty, battlefield, ... Didn't and don't they still all have basically unrestricted chat? Sure they might not be expressly marketed to kids, but everyone I knew was playing wow and runescape in elementary school with no issues.
That doesn't mean kids don't want to play them. But Roblox is pitching itself as a safe space for kids.
And if not, then what even is the value of playing online as opposed to locally with AIs?
If children want to play together with their friends, isn't it much better to spin them a Minecraft server or such for friends they know from real life instead of playing games limiting them by "very narrowly specific interactions" anyway?
> If children want to play together with their friends, isn't it much better to spin them a Minecraft server or such for friends they know from real life instead of playing games limiting them by "very narrowly specific interactions" anyway?
compared to roblox, sure. who would even argue against that?
but there are many games where it really don't matter. it's probably most games... car racing sim... football sim... strategy like civilization...
Can only add your friends for chat? Is fine.
I feel like this same strategy is sane for adults also. Before the internet, we did fine making friends and playing games with people we actually know. So much of the awfulness of the modern online space comes from anonymous interactions with strangers. I don’t think human social connections are able to scale in the way the internet enables.
I'm not saying it's not fine (depending on the age), but you won't convince me it's safer then playing Sim City 3000. It is inherently less safe.
But kids love playing them.
Note that whole your comment was about assumption it is education hidden in toy, which is what you want. But, kids often just want a toy.
Especially the whole virtual economy where they profit from children work, without giving anything back, due to how virtual money converts back to real currencies.
How anyone on here does not immediately see Roblox for what it is is beyond me. They have to be one of the clearest cases around, and yet their PR apparently is strong enough you believed it was kid-friendly and kid-safe.
Yeah, no. I have kids and have walked this path over the last few years. Roblox is, as a company, your standard big org. That is, completely amoral, extracting cash in whatever ways are possible, protecting users (kids) only to the minimal extent required by law or perception that might harm business.
Very very little of their user-base are actually making games, and of those, 99.99% are getting nothing for the work they put in. That whole side of things is one part of the scam (exploit the labour of kids with the idea of making it big, but ensure the reward tier is high enough to avoid needing to cash out for nearly everyone). This is the least problematic part though.
Essentially, Roblox is the wild west internet I grew up on in the early 90’s. Sure, your friends are there, but it’s chock full of pedophiles offering candy if you just sign up to this discord channel. Free Robux might be the common lure, but they can be far more sophisticated. The sad fact that most parents don’t like to think about is that the pedo networks are large, sophisticated, and constantly, actively, hunting for any opportunity. Roblox is a platform of choice. The moderation and level of care from this company may as well be non-existent. It’s just enough to convince the public that they are doing the right thing.
Then there is the never ending stream of gambling games. The currency is Roblox, and that can be converted to cold hard cash, so there are infinite games just built around trying to addict kids and use that to extract the almighty Robux. It’s every evil trick you see with mobile game trash, just sometimes more transparent.
All in all, it’s a terrible place, but at first glance, fine. Your kid playing the popular games with their friends; it’s just like Nintendo. But wander off the happy path, just a little, and the monsters are waiting.
If a game provides the ability for kids to build things out of blocks, those same kids will make pornographic images out of those blocks.
Mythic Quest - TTP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_xqyIMwbew
>You give the public a shovel, they dig dicks. You give them a pen, they draw dicks. You give them some clay...
>Definitely going to sculpt dicks.
I have a 12-year-old playing Roblox right now, couldn’t agree less.
Roblox is the 2025 equivalent of AOL chat rooms circa 1998. You should assume that a child playing it will encounter the worst of humanity, and if you aren’t aware of that you’re not paying attention.
The CEO was NOT prepared for the questions in this interview, quote: `I was hoping to come here and talk about fun stuff`.
It's insightful how a genuine question about hindenburg's research into Roblox's decrease in safety immediately pushed the CEO to fury starting 23:29.
Both journalists were VERY agreeable and were like trying not to pick a fight. Want to talk about the fun stuff Mr CEO? There's no fun when so many kids are being systematically harassed by evil adults in the platform.
[1] https://hindenburgresearch.com/roblox/
[2] https://thebearcave.substack.com/p/problems-at-roblox-rblx-4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjtr64ZQUWA
I've not got kids yet, but I do wonder if the best way to prepare them for the internet is by teaching them the many dangers by navigating it with them (scams, grooming, bullying, hacking)?
I was literally expecting him to be in an interview while driving or something and get into a car crash...
1. I really wish Dreams had kept going, expanded beyond PlayStation, and tried to take the market from Roblox. They were infinitely more safety-minded with their content. It would be great to see a Roblox competitor.
2. Kotaku on mobile is a horrid experience. There’s like 20% of the screen allocated to content, the rest are ads. My god.
Face ID? Once or multiple times without prior notice?
The former can easily circumvented by letting a child create the account and taking it over after Facebook ID.
Wasn’t the UK system the one that could be fooled by a video game?
Too expensive? Too bad, Roblox. Worlds tiniest violin is playing for you.
Once he gets to the high five stuff, it’s clear the person is a twelve year old themself. Skibidi toilet.
Roblox Is Threatening to Sue Me For Protecting Kids (Schlep) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqAw_NjHK8
Roblox, Take a Seat (ft: Chris Hansen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcVPPOB8TQ
#freeschlep
It was awesome seeing the kids on Roblox revolt against Baszucki for doubling down on supporting pedophiles.
The leadership team at Roblox is so entirely tone deaf, if I were the the board, I'd remove them all. I watched Baszucki and
This is in addition to the money laundering and dystopian hellscape that is the whole game publishing platform that has been documented here on hn.
Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ
Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAaY
My own child says that no parent should allow their child on Roblox. Smart kid.
I tried to sign up as “Roger Rabbit”, who was 21, and therefore gain some access to a particular mov that was popular at the time. It was then that I learned two things:
- The sysop can talk to you directly!
- The sysop can see your phone number and knows Roger is that kid that signed up ages ago…
Met the sysop in real life some years later and he had thought the whole thing was pretty funny.
The point is that this was a local community; and the internet just doesn’t work like that.
So how do we make it his priority?
Friends turn on friends and steal their items. Lots of crying and yelling. My child starts having tantrum if they can’t play. A friend’s child started hitting them with fists because they weren’t allowed to play.
The problem is that all the kids play this game and it’s their form of communication so I don’t want to completely ban it. Right now I block it on the router during the week and only allow it on weekends or when friends come over.
My other complaint is the currency they use, Robux. After 10, all kids want for their birthday is that. Some kids spend it on the stupidest things. When they run out of currency they go into a game called please donate and beg for more money. They also trade rare items for currency and some make items and sell them in the store to make money.
If the kid is banned by parents they find creative ways to play, they hide the app from Home Screen and play when studying, or wake up really early to play on their device, they play on school laptop using websites that run android emularors, etc.
I guess I’ll mention something positive as well. One child I know actually enjoys building their own games and publishing them. It rare thought and I haven’t seen many kids do that. They usually load up Roblox studio, play around with it for a bit and never ouch it again.
I miss the days of creative fun with Minecraft and wish the kids would have played that instead of Roblox.
Parenting is essentially a form of mega censorship. So much that censoring is the default state of the child's interaction with the world, and a parent chooses to selectively and gradually uncensored certain things.
The open web is antithetical to raising children because it is, well, open. Before the Internet, there was no way for a child to interface with the entire world. It was a few tv channels, books at a library, kids in the neighborhood, and within these "platforms" it is quite easy for a parent to "blacklist" unwanted "content", e.g. "Don't hang out with Billy because he smokes pot, and if I see you with him, you're grounded."
The unpopular opinion but correct approach for kids on the Internet is to have everything blocked until explicitly approved--by the parent preferably, not by some curation algorithms a la YouTube Kids etc.
In terms of Roblox:
- mandatory age verification for any platform that is deemed to target children
- mandatory parental account for any child
- a parent account must whitelist all the individual games the child plays on Roblox
- communication transcripts saved for parents to view
- comms off by default for children
Source: parent of 3 kids dealing with this on a daily basis and seeing the obvious trainwrecks that occur when kids are left with free access.
I'm a fan of prediction markets. This makes me think the article is rather biased.
jackvalentine•2mo ago
The entire tech industry in a nutshell.
mattlondon•2mo ago
But I don't think that argument really works for paedophilia. Society does not want to allow it at any scale (zero-tolerance - and rightly so), so even if it is a "small" proportion of the entire platform, it's still bad especially if they're basically only paying lip service to any protections.
This person didn't seem to really understand that though and was trying to spin it as some sort of "business is great! We're doing great! Look at all these users and engagement! Growth growth growth!" type typical hype bullshit, but totally misread the situation.
vintagedave•2mo ago
mschuster91•2mo ago
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/auburn-gresham-resident...