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Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

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Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#101

Post by tailscaler2026 »

hluska wrote: post #64
jjmarr wrote: post #31

The "child safety measures" was dividing the playerbase into age groups and banning almost all communication between them. The age groups are under 9, 9–12, 13–15, 16–17, 18–20, and 21+. Users only speak to other players ±1 age group, so 18-20 can speak to 16-17 or 21+. The problem is almost every game on Roblox is social and the matchmaking isn't mature enough to ensure players in a lobby can all communicate. My fav…

Or perhaps you’ve aged out of a game that is primarily meant to be a place for children. The child safety measures make things more difficult for you because nobody wants you there. And it seems to be working as designed. Maybe it’s time to find a new game that’s more for your age group.

Roblox isn't a game, it's a platform. It has hundreds of millions of monthly users. A significant portion of those are 18+. And unsurprisingly there's plenty of games that target older audiences.

Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#102

Post by phatfish »

philipallstar wrote: post #96
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a parenting problem and parents say they need help so... what next? HN tends to say nah, SOL, parent harder, never pass any laws you have no power because of privacy (money) or something.

It's not harder though. You have to do things to get your kid on Roblox. You have to do nothing to not get your kid on Roblox.

Peak HN childless digital nomad comment.

Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#103

Post by hokumguru »

Regardless of Roblox’s continued failings I strongly believe that there needs to be a safe, scrutinized, and open online platform for children to socialize in meaningful ways. As much as we would rather discontinue social media for minors the fact remains that for millions of Americans the internet provides a primary means of social fulfillment, especially in gaming, which is far more popular among youth demographics.

I think Roblox themselves have a chance in the coming years to prove themselves this space. They have one of the greatest chances to create this space precisely due to the intense scrutiny they’re currently under. It’s honestly that or fold basically. And if it’s not Roblox, what other platform do we trust our children on?

There have absolutely been growing pains since I regularly played games on the platform in ‘09-‘13 but I also credit Roblox extremely heavily in my journey as a software engineer making social games for me and my friends. It fostered that curiosity in a frankly healthy way for a young nerd that has eventually culminated in a job at FAANG and great academic fulfillment. I hope they can continue to provide this for millions of more children, just in a safer and healthier way.

Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#104

Post by dom96 »

iknowstuff wrote: post #87
potatototoo99 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen a video of someone getting verified by drawing a face on a thumb.

It was fake

I've seen people getting verified by using a video game character creation screen. How can these AI systems possibly tell?

Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#105

Post by tailscaler2026 »

philipallstar wrote: post #97
tailscaler2026 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah Nintendo is the same as Disney Toontown 20 years ago. It makes it basically impossible to form social bonds. My bigger point is there are increasingly very few spaces for teenagers to socialize and interact (and at least in the US, very few offline), and what sort of long-term ramifications this is going to have. If the net outcome of this is kids return to playing outside and unfettered access to parks and neig…

What's heavily locked down?

Helicopter parenting trends over the past 20-30 years that extend until the kid is 18+.

Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#106

Post by lokar »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #91
Insanity wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s just a US quirk. In many countries you can buy alcohol when you’re 18+. It’s odd that you can do everything but drink. Like you can go to work, drive home to your wife and kids, but can’t have a beer lol.

> That’s just a US quirk My understanding is it’s because of car culture. Drunk-driving deaths drove up the drinking age [1]. [1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Why-Is-the-US-Drinking-Age-...

Also it would increase illegal transfer of alcohol to underage peers, in theory. But high school kids who want beer have no major problems getting already.

It’s up to each state, but the federal government threatens funding if they get out of line.

Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#107

Post by Aurornis »

ryandrake wrote: post #82
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these measures were implemented poorly and needed to be paired with matchmaking to not destroy the platform I see these as orthogonal issues. Your mathmaking gripe sounds legitimate, and is probably driven by Roblox's low 21+ user numbers. That would be expected to change over time. At the same time, I'm not seeing a great argument for why these folks (EDIT: Roblox) should continue to have unfettered access to kids…

Roblox is absolutely torching their platform, in many ways besides matchmaking and the age verification. Ask any kid who's grown up with the game. Players are leaving in droves and Roblox has become quite un-cool in the last six or so months.

> Ask any kid who's grown up with the game.

I don’t have a kid who’s grown up with Roblox nearby to ask. Can you please explain what you mean?

Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#108

Post by Aurornis »

skybrian wrote: post #61
a2128 wrote: post #44

Roblox's introduction of mandatory face verification to chat is one of the most biggest examples of how people in tech can get so deep in trying to create a solid technical solution, that they completely miss the human problems it creates. You could create the best possible face verification system that processes everything completely locally, uses CPU security features to make sure the photos stay exactly where they…

Ideally Roblox would be able to rely on the platform to tell them whether the device is child-locked or not. It would be up to parents to make sure their kids only have access to devices with appropriate locks turned on. Parents could rely on vendors to make devices where it’s easy to set appropriate locks, and rely on stores not to sell unlocked devices to kids. But we don’t live in that world. Also, the are trying…

This is an interesting comment because there’s a parallel effort to shift age verification to devices, which draws a lot of hate here.

Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#109

Post by UqWBcuFx6NV4r »

ryandrake wrote: post #82
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these measures were implemented poorly and needed to be paired with matchmaking to not destroy the platform I see these as orthogonal issues. Your mathmaking gripe sounds legitimate, and is probably driven by Roblox's low 21+ user numbers. That would be expected to change over time. At the same time, I'm not seeing a great argument for why these folks (EDIT: Roblox) should continue to have unfettered access to kids…

Roblox is absolutely torching their platform, in many ways besides matchmaking and the age verification. Ask any kid who's grown up with the game. Players are leaving in droves and Roblox has become quite un-cool in the last six or so months.

“thing that was cool to kids is not cool anymore” is not a new phenomenon, and the onus is really on you to show the causation.

Re: Roblox shares plummet 18% as child safety measures weigh on bookings

#110

Post by jorams »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #34
hitekker wrote: post #21

This is the second time in the last month that Hindenburgh's reports appear to be prophetic. Previously, they called out Backblaze before the company began harming its own product.

Hindenberg's 2024 report titled "Roblox: Inflated Key Metrics For Wall Street And A Pedophile Hellscape For Kids": https://hindenburgresearch.com/roblox/

And I assume this[1] is the reference to Backblaze? Notably not Hindenburg and more recent, but I believe there is some team overlap and there doesn't seem to be anything else.

[1]: https://www.morpheus-research.com/backblaze/

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