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Roblox is minting teen millionaires

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Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#231

Post by MarsIronPI »

Brybry wrote: post #161
CrzyLngPwd wrote: post #142

My grandsons would come and stay, bringing tablet devices with them, and would prefer to stay glued to them the whole time. Since we banned their use, they now play outside with my other grandchildren, on the rope swing, the zip line, or exploring in the woods making dens and forts, using their imaginations. Children should not be playing computer games, or scrolling on any social media, IMO.

I think a fair number of us here got into computers because of playing computer games as kids. The issue is setting limits. Now obviously banning is easier and lower friction but limiting to an X time per day routine can also help with self-discipline. Depends on the person. Kids can have the same issue with TV. I had an issue as a kid with books . My parents had to limit my reading time because I would stay up all n…

Anecdote here: I was given a computer at age 4, and I didn't really have any limits on how long I could use it. On the other hand, I wasn't allowed to register any accounts and I had to ask before visiting sites I had never been to before. >75% of my time on the computer at that age was spent on hacking with Scratch. I learned a lot and developed my love of computers at that age. I'm absolutely glad that I didn't have "screen time", but I can also see that if I didn't have the limits I did I could have ended up pretty badly.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#232

Post by freejazz »

yieldcrv wrote: post #37
intrasight wrote: post #17

"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.

> 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 a…

>I run a studio that makes Roblox experiences and this is Discord's problem

Not really if Roblox is the one connecting the pedos and kids in the first place and I don't see how that is remotely controversial.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#233

Post by microtonal »

grvdrm wrote: post #187
microtonal wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a big difference between games now and games then. E.g. an SNES game was made to be fun, but not to be intentionally addictive, you would never buy a new game if it was. Many online games are designed to be as addictive as crack to extract as much revenue as possible. Our kid is in the typical video gaming age, almost every kid of her age is stuck in Roblox and some in Fortnite. Setting limits helps, but mor…

I’m a parent. Girls 7 and 4. I think you’re right about a number of parent habits. Hard to impose a device limit on a kid if that kid watches you use your device constantly. I’m not some hero here - constantly reminding myself to be aware. Now, I think imposing limits in the open world is a specific challenge. To your point, you’ll see kids at restaurants on iPads. Well, now your kid wants iPad. You don’t give it? Th…

Now, I think imposing limits in the open world is a specific challenge. To your point, you’ll see kids at restaurants on iPads. Well, now your kid wants iPad. You don’t give it? They start a shitstorm.

Our daughter certainly did not have access to an iPad at that age. Maybe she could use her mom's iPad (I don't have one) once every few weeks for a brief period. The shitstorm only happens a few times, they get over it pretty quickly.

It got harder once she was 9 or 10, because most kids have access to a phone after school. Once she got a phone and a tablet, there have been very clear time restrictions. A lot of kids hang around on devices all afternoon, the rule here on weekdays is that she can have some screen time before dinner. (I remember that also being TV time for us when we were kids.)

She was allowed to play on the Nintendo Switch when she was 7 or 8, but only fun, non-addictive games (the typical Nintendo titles) and no multi-player.

Hard to impose a device limit on a kid if that kid watches you use your device constantly. I’m not some hero here - constantly reminding myself to be aware.

Yeah, that is hard. I think banning phones from shared moments like (the time around) breakfast, dinner, or when having a cup of tea together is an easy and impactful move. Those are moments when they are also not playing, so it's a good time to be together without distractions.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#234

Post by freejazz »

Aeolun wrote: post #110
tadfisher wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the actual excuse Roblox used when confronted with actual evidence of child sex trafficking originating on their platform, at the same time balking at implementing age gates and chat restrictions. So of course they caved and implemented age gates and chat restrictions when their "central bank" (a.k.a. concerned parents) learned about Roblox's "issues" from YouTube exposés and other concerned parents. It doesn…

This doesn’t really make sense though. If half of all American children are on your platform of course that’s a prime target. That’s a volume issue, not something inherent to the platform. I’m going to guess those numbers are still far lower than the number of times kids get messed up by a trusted adult.

Crazy that of all places someone here will say that the volume has nothing to do with the platform? The entire point of the platform is its size. The entire point of the tech industry is its size...

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#235

Post by latexr »

g947o wrote: post #227
mhitza wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telling parents how to raise their children, while also making baseless assumptions of their life as well, is an approach with which you'll only antagonize people.

The parent comment does not appear to be supportive of what's happening regarding Roblox ("mindless"). If they are not interested in making the situation any different, but just want to vent, I think it's a waste of everybody's time. > antagonize people You can potentially antagonize anyone in any situation on an online forum even with the nicest words. I don't see how it matters. If the person is not receptive, I co…

> You can potentially antagonize anyone in any situation on an online forum even with the nicest words.

True. But the nicest words are less likely to be taken as antagonist than the nastiest words. That’s why we should still strive to use the nicest words when we can, assuming the goal is to have a chance to change the other person’s mind.

> I don't see how it matters. If the person is not receptive, I couldn't care less.

It matters because we don’t yet know if the person in question is receptive. Maybe they are.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#236

Post by russelg »

jameson wrote: post #91

Roblox is slot machines for kids Games are filled with loot boxes that drop exquisite items on chance. It's a repeated cycle of charging robux only to spend on another slot machine. US regulation is far behind protecting children from such scheme. Japan disallows many forms of such loot boxes due to addictive nature.

>Japan disallows many forms of such loot boxes due to addictive nature.

Crazy to say this when they've basically pioneered and perfected gacha games.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#237

Post by GJim »

ekropotin wrote: post #61
Imustaskforhelp wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone's threshold is different and personal. But I think it can reflect a level of anxiety about the cost of living. You aren't OK having $1M or even $10M - you need something far beyond before you feel OK to quit. It's not his fault, more of something the young generations are facing as their parents struggle with the relentless cost of living vs stagnated wages for most except the "laptop class". I am teen and…

As someone who been a teen long time ago, I can’t imaging someone in this age responsibly planning their retirement. I’d 100% blow out all money on some useless crap. If you are really a teen, who can think so clearly and far-sightedly, you are going to have a really bright future as an adult. I wish you luck and please do something good for this world, instead of chasing high paying job in FAANG.

> you are going to have a really bright future as an adult

Or waste their most fun years slaving for the man.

Signed: Gen-X

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#238

Post by freedomben »

snackbroken wrote: post #118
fc417fc802 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please check this box to confirm that you do _not_ possess a government issued photo ID ... Sorry, in order to use this service you will need to visit your local police station and have them verify that you are in fact a child ... Yeah I'm not seeing how this is supposed to work. I don't think age verification solves very many real world problems. (It does mitigate some, such as alcohol consumption. Just not most.)

>Yeah I'm not seeing how this is supposed to work You could verify the ID of an adult who vouches for the child they are a legal guardian of. That way, if it turns out that Brayden(M12) is actually Linda(F45) you know who to send law enforcement to to ask some very pointed questions. That said, I don't think online ID verification is effective and even if it was, it wouldn't be worth the level of mass privacy invasio…

> fixing social services so that they actually provide better help when requested instead of making things worse

Agreed, and I wish more people would realize this. When I was a kid, one of my friend's brothers was accused of molestation. The accused kid was around 8 or 9 and the victim was around 5 or 6. The social services came in and immediately got the mom fired from her job (she was a school teacher), put the family through tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, utterly disrupted the lives of the entire family, got the accused kicked out of school and put in a special school for troubled kids (which itself brought a whole host of issues), and nearly ripped the family apart. There was no evidence at all of the crime, other than the word of the accuser (a 5 or 6 year old child). Fast forward a few years later and the accuser apologized profusely and admitted that it had never happened. Oh and also the accused was at a friend's house at the time of the supposed molestation, and the friends' parents had told the investigators that. Law enforcement dropped the case having determined it not likely to be true and certainly nowhere near the evidence for prosecution (in fact, there was evidence that the event never happened), but social services proceeded with all of the above anyway. So yeah, there's a lot of work to do to make anybody want to trust them to help rather than make everything worse.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#239

Post by thmsths »

embedding-shape wrote: post #221
pastage wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can mince his words. In the end anyone who organize gambling for profit is scum. If you do it for charity I know form experience it is massively profitable, but.. I am not sure it is worth it for society.

> I am not sure it is worth it for society. As always, seems to depend on the scale. Letting anyone in the world place bets on when the next nuke will hit a city? Probably pretty bad overall for society. Doing raffles for some local tiny organization run by Ada and William so they can continue hosting a ten person event? Probably pretty good overall.

The problem once again comes when you decide to hyper optimize for profit. Ada and William will rely on word of mouth, maybe a few posters to drum up attention to their raffle.

Meanwhile large gambling orgs will run ad spots non stop with celebrities enticing you to join their app with free bonus bets and once you're in they will send you daily notifications to nudge you to place "just one more bet".

Easy to see how one would be relatively harmless while the other could cause widespread addiction.

Re: Roblox is minting teen millionaires

#240

Post by foobarian »

Thlom wrote: post #145
Root_Denied wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this day and age Prism launcher [0] will handle Minecraft and any modpacks you want to use. The only caveat is pointing it at your download folder so it can open the tabs for any mods that need a manual download and it will import them, but that's hardly difficult. Minecraft (Mojang/Microsoft) have also made it clear that with them moving from OpenGL to Vulcan they're maintaining the ability for Minecraft to run o…

Sure, but I still need a Microsoft account of some sort to play Minecraft? And parental controls still exists inside Microsoft or Xbox (is that the same account??). I spent a couple days just trying to make it possible for my daughter and her friends to be connected on Minecraft. And then you need to figure out what a launcher is, that Prism even exists. And you get a completely different experience on iPad where Pri…

I feel like parent post is maybe joking/being sarcastic? If not they are kinda proving the point.
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