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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

#131

Post by crazydoggers »

tyleo wrote: post #7
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.

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…

I've come to the belief that there is a larger than we assume portion of the population that is either complicit in these things, or doesn't think that these types of behaviors are "that bad". (some of the comments here are, sadly, exactly that) It's the only reasonable explanation I can think of why these things are so hard to root out. Some of these people perhaps never had children, which might be part of the disconnect. But if I was the CEO of a company harming children in this way, I'd make it my life mission to stamp it out and find and prosecute the individuals involved.

What else must we think goes through these executives minds? It's got to be things like "It's not my kids, so I don't care?" or "It's not that bad, people are too sensitive", or "I don't care what happens to kids because I have anti-personality disorder (psychopath) and only care about making money"

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

#132

Post by prophesi »

recursive wrote: post #109
ACCount37 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Not OP, but for me I'm wary whenever I see in-game currency (Minecoins). Thankfully there are no gambling mechanics tied in to Minecoins directly, but the server ecosystem is still rampant with gambling just the same[0].

[0] https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/community/posts/3600...

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

#133

Post by socalgal2 »

lenerdenator wrote: post #118
fragmede wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 do…

> you need someone with the statutory authority to charge Roblox

Roblox didn't put up the content. Some user did. The user should be charged.

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

#134

Post by Nextgrid »

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.

The problem is that just like boycotts/individual action doesn't work (besides a handful of lucky exceptions), this won't work either if all your kids' peers are on it. Being the "odd one out" brings its own share of problems, especially in a volatile environment where any pretext for bullying is a good one.

This is why we need regulation. Both for child-focused platforms, but also for adults (regarding social media).

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

#135

Post by foobarian »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #110
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 c…

Out of curiosity how did they manage to sign up for Instagram? Browser? Asking for a friend

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

#136

Post by socalgal2 »

endymion-light wrote: post #119
andrewmutz wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yea, we'd charge the person on the corner selling the cigarettes. We wouldn't sue the city for selling cigarettes just because it happened in the city, even if the person selling them paid their taxes (so the city made money on it).

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

#137

Post by WesleyJohnson »

parasubvert wrote: post #93
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.

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.

It goes beyond that though. There are games and in-game content that aren't being reviewed. There are claims of player skins where the characters are wearing a t-shirt with an actual photo of Charlie Kirk's death (the shot to the neck).

Anyone can make a Roblox game and publish it, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of moderations or verification going on. And you don't need to "talk", voice or text. You can emote, type on signs, and communicate in other ways.

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

#138

Post by socalgal2 »

pjmlp wrote: post #27
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.

Epic made a deal with Unity, apparently they intend to work around stores by turning Fortnite into a game store.

Do you have link? How does Unity make money running in Fornite which uses Unreal?

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

#139

Post by Ekaros »

endymion-light wrote: post #116
parasubvert wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would not be against banning sale of any type of mystery or lootbox mechanics to those under age of 18. Including all digital and physical products. Yes, some things will be lost, but I think it will be for better.

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

#140

Post by Delphiza »

herbst wrote: post #21
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.

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.

I try to comment on Roblox whenever it comes up as my daughter was pulled into a grooming pedo gang through Roblox.

Read some of the comments from a HN thread from 3 years ago where HN parents insist that they are able to properly educate and self-censor. Enough people don't care (enough), despite Roblox being called out all the time by people with big platforms.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32014754#32015542

I am shocked that Roblox has not been shut down, not by regulators, but by parents flat-out denying access. All evidence suggests that yes, it is that bad.

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