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Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

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Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#101

Post by iamnothere »

zzzeek wrote: post #94
iamnothere wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in any other field if a product cannot be made safe for consumers, you just don't produce and sell it I’ll keep this in mind the next time I pick up some acetylene or muriatic acid.

Acetylene is being marketed to children as something fun to play with ?

They literally said dangerous products couldn’t be sold to consumers in general. Obvious nonsense or chainsaws would require a license. I am pushing back against the safetyist notion that unsafe products cannot or should not be sold to the public.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#102

Post by crazydoggers »

parasubvert wrote: post #83
crazydoggers wrote: post #2

We need to pass laws that can make these executives serve jail time. You’d quickly see these “impossible to moderate” platforms quickly clean up.

What law is being broken?

I literally said we need to pass laws to make it illegal. (ie knowingly allowing child trafficking or exploitation on your service)

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#103

Post by andrewmutz »

endymion-light wrote: post #18

I looked at Roblox recently as a nostalgia trip as I was active in the community over a decade ago when I was a kid. Genuinely insane that it's legal. Full dark gambling patterns, insane access. I think the only reason it's not been regulated is that people haven't looked closely, but it's as if someone took the worst of gacha games and decided to base their childrens platform on it.

Why is it a societal issue rather than just a parenting issue? Just don't let your kids play roblox. It's what I do and it works fine.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#104

Post by watwut »

massysett wrote: post #17
bmurphy1976 wrote: post #6

It's a nightmare managing all this stuff. Roblox, Minecraft, Meta Quest services, Fortnite, the list goes on and on. These companies are not helping us either. Thankfully my son and his friends have somehow iterated away from Fortnite. It's no longer cool so they just stopped playing it. That's one less thing I have to worry about.

I let my kid play Roblox for a couple of weeks and I was absolutely horrified by all the inducements to seek Robux. So I removed it from her iPad, which is locked down. She gets along just fine without Roblox.

Roblox is popular precisely because majority of kids play it for free without buying Robux.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#105

Post by recursive »

Spivak wrote: post #64
recursive wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet used to be that forest on the edge of town. Once in a while you might find some drug paraphernalia there. Now it's the Las Vegas strip with billboards for hookers and blow.

I think your comparison is more apt than you think but not for the reason you say it is. The Internet of today is like the Las Vegas of today—a largely sterile corporate theme park whose only real goal is just separating you from your money and is ruthlessly efficient at it.

That was an intentional part of the analogy, as far as I know. It's big money.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#106

Post by crazydoggers »

slightwinder wrote: post #70
tyleo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why this is getting downvoted. As another response mentioned, we wouldn't tolerate this in any other industry. If a restaurant served food that harmed people we wouldn't say, "it's on the parents." I don't get why so many folks are willing to say that with harms caused by tech companies. Scale is no excuse either, "at our scale we just can't handle all the content." If anything it makes the problem…

> If a restaurant served food that harmed people we wouldn't say Is sugar in your country restricted? Or meat? I guess alcohol is, as it's everywhere. But restaurants server many harmful food which is only tolerated because harm comes from time and serving-sizes. But the same can be said for dark patterns in software, they are usually not obvious and in your face, but sneaky enough to fly under the parent's attention…

Are you honestly comparing sugar or meat to child trafficking and abuse? Thats some serious black-and-white fallacy thinking there.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#107

Post by watwut »

wartywhoa23 wrote: post #100
Pet_Ant wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Physical play is nigh impossible. It means getting other kid's parents to let them out. And then you need to spend your full-time supervising them. Can't just let them out with their bikes on the streets. I think the problem is that either you can give children freedom to explore the world, or you can make them accountable for their actions. Can't have both, and parents will protect their kids by not letting them get…

I'd been riding bikes with my friends around the block since the age of 6. Parents didn't chase us around and minded their own business instead of nanomanaging us into absolute snowflakes that modern children have become. We played tag at building sites, jumping gaps meter wide and five deep, made explosives out of match sticks, bolts and nuts, and showed up at home just to check in and have a quick lunch. We did a b…

> We played tag at building sites, jumping gaps meter wide and five deep, made explosives out of match sticks

As someone who thinks kids should have freedom, like kids in Germany or Japan have, I hate it when ridiculous arguments like these show up.

Look, if you was regularly doing all that, you probably should not have all that freedom. But, most kids are actually more reasonable, if raised right.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#108

Post by d_sem »

I think the primary issue is that there is massive demand for adolescent social interaction in a world that is increasingly physically isolating for kids.

Demographic shifts make suburban families too sparse to support children friend groups. Denser cities are increasingly financially impossible for families to move in.

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#109

Post by recursive »

ACCount37 wrote: post #81
acedTrex wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats wrong with Minecraft, that seems like an odd inclusion in the list?

Minecraft by itself is benign, but online servers? Oh boy. Full tilt P2W servers, ran by low key cybercriminals, with I Can't Believe It's Not Gambling mechanics targeting children. And Mojang itself is adding fuel to the fire by selling paid mods - for Bedrock only, which is the version most children play. Then there's the usual boon of online gaming - getting to interact with the shadiest characters you've ever met…

What's wrong with paid mods?

Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse

#110

Post by y-c-o-m-b »

ciarlill wrote: post #79

I didn't grow up with Roblox. I did grow up gambling pogs and MTG cards. I did grow up getting verbally sexually harassed at a Chuck-e-cheese. I did grow up finding my uncle's porno mag collection. I also did grow up playing Ultima Online with a group of people who knew I was a kid and helped and guided me through some really hard times with compassion. It's easy to focus on the amplification these platforms have on…

Education will not be enough. They actually teach about this stuff in school and give plenty of warnings believe it or not.

I also gave lectures and installed FamilyLink and put restrictions on my router to prevent my child from accessing devices in a way I didn't approve of or when I couldn't adequately supervise it. The sneaky little shit still found ways to circumvent all this both here at home and at school. My child completely ignored all the warnings and eventually got roped into talking to a very sick predatory individual over Roblox.

The Roblox creep convinced my child to sign up for Instagram where they were able to get on video calls often. They then made my child watch them do very disturbing things, including attempting to hang themselves, cutting themselves open, and other very sick shit that I would have never imagined. They then threatened my child that if it was reported, they would kill our entire family. This went on for a couple of years apparently and we're still dealing with the trauma and fallout of it years later. Authorities were unable to determine the identity of the individual due to the many layers of obfuscation (fake names, VPN usage, etc).

I'm a software engineer of nearly 20 years and very knowledgeable of tech. The fact that this still happened despite my many roadblocks and safe-guards I put in place really shocked me to the core. Not to mention the whole "am I terrible parent" question which naturally arises out of all this. I've been reassured that I did everything I could reasonably do to prevent it, but that question always weighs on my mind regardless.

I warn every parent I can to keep their kids off Roblox and other "community driven" games that are like this.

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