alt Hacker News"According to the company, their monthly player base includes half of all American children under the age of 16." - Wikipedia
2 decades in the making, they are really hitting their stride. But they are not doing enough to protect children from predators and that's a huge legal and regulatory risk.
Replies
> But they are not doing enough to protect children from predators and that's a huge legal and regulatory risk.
I run a studio that makes Roblox experiences and this is Discord's problem, and will immediately become Telegram's problem the decade where parents and policy makers figure out its Discord's problem
their kid went into an experience within Roblox so I can see that's the branding, the parent paid the kid's allowance in Robux, so I can again see that's the branding
but this is largely a symptom of parents nationwide not paying attention whatsoever
I've talked to many parents, aunts and uncles, they don't know they're the central bank of Roblox of a currency that can be accumulated and cashed out, let alone that its a distributed set of third party experiences.
Roblox Corporation already has age gated talking ability on platform. What specifically should they be doing when everything happens in different communities and off platform?
It sounds like, from this thread, that it's Roblox themselves who are the predators.
See this is why I think the whole age verification thing is backwards. If you want to create child friendly spaces then you need to verify someone's age is under 18, 16, 13 etc.. That's a way more real and tangible harm than a teenager looking at a nudie mag.
> But they are not doing enough to protect children from predators and that's a huge legal and regulatory risk.
It's first and foremost a huge risk for kids.
My solution is simple: my daughter (11 y/o) can play Roblox but she must be in a game with another friend (whom I know and whom I know her parents) and she must on a video/conf-call with that friend, using another device, while she plays Roblox. That way I hear everything they're saying.
And they're ecstatic and having lots of fun.
I check the chat once in a while: the rule is "not hiding the chat when parents look or no more Roblox".
Keeps her mostly at bay from predators.
> But they are not doing enough to protect children from predators
My understanding is that the recent improvements are face scans, and communication limited to people within a few 4 year windows.
They've also increased moderation of chat significantly, especially for the lower age windows.
What low hanging fruit do you see? What's the "ideal" system? Seems like a hard problem, if any sort of cooperative communication/play is involved.