Roblox has announced it will block under-13s from messaging others on the online gaming platform as part of new efforts to safeguard children.
Child users will not be able to send direct messages within games by default unless a verified parent or guardian gives them permission.
Parents will also be able to view and manage their child's account, including seeing their list of online friends, and setting daily limits on their play time.
'Beyond inflated key user metrics, our in-game research revealed an X-rated paedophile hellscape, exposing children to grooming, pornography, violent content and extremely abusive speech.
Roblox is compromising child safety in order to report growth to investors, per our interview with a former senior product designer: “If you’re limiting users’ engagement, it’s hurting your metrics…in a lot of cases, the leadership doesn’t want that.”'
Due to the popularity of online gaming platform Roblox with children and young people under the age of 16, our online safety experts have released this Safeguarding Update about a collection of games trending within the platform. The games depict themes of isolation, cutting, and suicide with some including chatrooms where users engage in unmoderated discussions around hopelessness, depression, self-harm, and suicide.
A naked man, wearing just a dog collar and a lead, is led across the floor by a woman in a bondage outfit. Two strippers dance next to a bar.
A group has gathered around a couple openly having sex, watching and occasionally commenting.
One man is wearing a Nazi uniform.
This isn't happening in the real world, it's taking place on a children's gaming platform.
Roblox is a huge sprawling world of games which is sometimes described as a kind of primitive metaverse.
There's a response from Roblox here
A resource from iNEQE
'We have recently received multiple reports from parents and school staff about harmful content on gaming platform Roblox. To help you understand how to keep children and young people safe, we’ve created this important Roblox Parents Guide.
The latest reports we’ve received have outlined worrying accounts of younger children being sent ‘friend requests’ from strangers and exposure to sexualised content, with in-game characters imitating sex in the Roblox game Brookhaven.'
“I would like one time,to search for ‘Christchurch’ on Roblox and not find a new recreation of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooting on a game platform aimed at very young children.”
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