I was surprised to see a children's game is publicly traded. So there is no real incentive to protect children, just max extract as much money as possible.
Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
111–120 of 399 posts
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#112I 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.
Tbh making Roblox illegal feels like the same moral panic that our parents had around metal music, hip-hop, and arcades. My kid plays Roblox, I prevent her from talking to others, and I police the Robux purchases. It really is a fun platform. The problem is for parents that aren't technical, or are negligent and don't know how to police it.
I think parents (not fully unfoundedly) expect more of a playground experience from something advertised as a "game for children", so for them it follows that they should precisely not have to manually police it.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#113Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Capitalism needs constraints. I'd just be happy with one constraint and that is to forbid the crony capitalism that is rampant today.
> I'd just be happy with one constraint and that is to forbid the crony capitalism that is rampant today. But "regulated" capitalism inevitably leads to crony capitalism. What we've arrived at can barely even be called capitalism, and old school capitalism paved the way: https://web.archive.org/web/20220331174542/https://nymag.com...
The crony capitalism was brought to you literally by companies and millionaires scared of regulation and heavily pushing for deregulation. They supported Trump and republicans by large margin, especially financially.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#115I 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.
As a society, we limit children's access to predatory stuff all the time - porn, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling/lottery, guns, even swear words on the public airwaves.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#116I 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.
Tbh making Roblox illegal feels like the same moral panic that our parents had around metal music, hip-hop, and arcades. My kid plays Roblox, I prevent her from talking to others, and I police the Robux purchases. It really is a fun platform. The problem is for parents that aren't technical, or are negligent and don't know how to police it.
I mean, gambling for underage children is already illegal due to a myriad of reasons. I'd argue the psychological design of gacha games should be limited. Building patterns that get adults addicted, and advertising them specifically to children is the problem.
In the same way if a casino advertised child roulette wheels, I'd want legislation to step in.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#117disclaimer: slightly biased as i've made USD from Roblox it's really interesting to me seeing the debate around age verification from both sides. many Roblox developers and users seems to think that it's the end of the platform: > Awesome! We love mandatory identity checks and age verification on every major social platform. Nobody needs privacy online. Thank you Roblox. > No just no. This won’t work, this is too enf…
> t's a move that absolutely will reduce child abuse on their platforms, and make it safer for kids to play online.
Playing an online game under your own name exposes you to entirely new and massively more acute level of risk practically immediately. Absolutely no way I would allow my kids to give their real names to a game.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am watching YouTubers showing these things for years to the public. Somehow people don't really seem to care at all. Roblox is really really weird.
> Somehow people don't really seem to care at all. > I am watching YouTubers showing these things for years to the public. I'm confused, aren't "YouTubers who make videos about the problem" people? They seem to care so much that they've put money, time, and energy into creating videos illustrating the problem.
They're people, but they're not politicians or regulators with the ability to do anything about it.
At a certain point, you need to have a statute that says "thou shalt not offer cybersex and online gambling to children", and you need someone with the statutory authority to charge Roblox with doing so and penalize them after due process. Either we don't have that statute, or the people with the statutory authority don't enforce things like they should.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#119I 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.
I mean, if someone was on a street corner selling child friendly cigarettes, I wouldn't call that a parenting issue.
I think parenting is one aspect, but surely you see how given it's a platform that advertises itself specifically for children, in the same way as if there was a children channel on the TV telling your kids to smoke crack, maybe someone should step in
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#120Hmm. This was on the front page, generating lots of discussion. Now it’s hidden. What’s up HN? How is this not a relevant article here?
I think they have some of algorithm that pushes down articles with too high a comment/upvote ratio