Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well • Hacker News Board

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#101

Post by agravier » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 5:15 AM UTC

lll-o-lll wrote: post #64

agravier wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm interested in sources for your info about Roblox being choke full with pedos and the sophisticated techniques they employ.

Because you doubt my comments or because you are genuinely interested? I can go get them, as there have been some great investigative journalists working on this in recent times. However, I have very little interest in providing references you could very easily find for yourself, if you are merely skeptical.

I am interested because I have kids and they like Roblox (chat disabled). I don't doubt thing, I care about my children's well-being.

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#102

Post by klooney » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 7:21 PM UTC

tasuki wrote: post #96

> The only thing that stopped this tantrum was allowing the CEO to talk about Polymarket, a cryptoscam-based prediction market, letting people place bets on things as ridiculous as awards ceremonies and future weather patterns. I'm a fan of prediction markets. This makes me think the article is rather biased.

Kotaku and their parent company are in the dogmatic "silicon valley bad " camp. Not to defend Roblox or Polymarket, but if they were doing a pretty good job, I would expect the presentation to be the same.

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#103

Post by mghackerlady » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 8:06 PM UTC

actionfromafar wrote: post #20

tinco wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy way to know if Roblox is safe for children is to ask the following question: Is Roblox available on Nintendo? 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.

Interesting thought experiment - making a Nintendo approved version would put the finger on exactly all problems of "real" Roblox. (But strictly speaking, the logic only works in one direction "If Nintendo, then Safe". But "if not on Nintendo, then unsafe" is not strictly true but maybe good shorthand.) The interview makes me think of Dupont and Tǝflon. "You are giving thousands of people cancer in your community." "…

They kinda tried with game builder garage a few years back, It keeps the whole game making and sharing aspect while limiting the damage user generated content can do such as limiting custom assets and needing to get the games number to download it to your system

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#104

Post by mghackerlady » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 8:09 PM UTC

lll-o-lll wrote: post #50

yreg wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything that's online and anything that has large multiplayer lobbies/worlds is inherently very low on the kid safety gauge, no?

Yeah, no. Nintendo, as the other poster said. Random stranger interaction == bad. Can’t verify age == bad. 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…

It's not even that stranger interaction is inherently bad, Nintendos Splatoon series is very multiplayer with strangers centric but it manages to stay safe for kids because of the lack of chat and user generated content for the most part

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#105

Post by jackling » Tue, Nov 25, 2025, 9:05 PM UTC

mcphage wrote: post #100

dgrin91 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a journalist does not at least attempt to present their viewpoint as neutral I will immediate presume they have irrational bias and grow skeptical of what the journalist is telling me - no matter what side of the issue their bias is on. In other words, if you talk to me like a salesman I will presume you are trying to sell me and I wont want to buy. Talk to me like an adult. Tell me what happened. That doesn't mea…

> If a journalist does not at least attempt to present their viewpoint as neutral I will immediate presume they have irrational bias and grow skeptical of what the journalist is telling me So you’re saying you have an irrational bias against other people having opinions? Fascinating.

That's not what he was saying. It's not a irrational bias he has. It's a rational response for a neutal thirdparty trying to understand what the issue is.