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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

#141

Post by curiousObject »

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.

This is quite like saying that because you’ve “aged out” of high school, you must be suddenly cut off from interacting with all the friends you made in high school

IRL, you stay in touch with some of those old high school friends for years.

I don’t know if it’s the Roblox system deliberately trying to prevent players from maintaining contact outside the game with their friends? Or maybe just that the players haven’t foreseen the need to be ready for the abrupt cut in communication on their next birthday? (Happy Birthday!)

Sounds like a serious strategic error by Roblox though.

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

#142

Post by mvdtnz »

jjmarr wrote: post #134
mysterydip wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a point of clarity (because I read that at first as well), they spent tens of thousands of robux , which are at a generic level 100:$1. So not as crazy as it sounds, still an investment.

My parents bought me lifetime OBC over a decade ago instead of an XBOX. I get 2200 Robux/month in passive income.

I think you need to stop assuming people know things like the value of Robux or what OBC is if you want to communicate with normal people about this stuff.

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

#143

Post by Aaronsood »

Roblox is genuinely digging its own grave, the brainrot games made a huge chunk of its playerbase leave, then after the schlepp situation, added all that age verification stuff, and then most of the kids left too. Now there is just a fraction of its original players left playing.

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

#144

Post by taurath »

subscribed wrote: post #124
phatfish wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m sure what replaces it will be even worse though. :/ Hopefully not, it feels like regulation is catching up with the child exploitation. Once the giant platforms are dismantled and can no longer bully governments it will be easier to keep the smaller ones in check. And no, "dark web Roblox" isn't going to be a replacement. Not matter how much the existing exploiters try to make it a scare tactic.

No, it doesn't. Not long time ago a microblogginf platform run by a billionaire introduced an easy way to "virtually undress" real kids. Outrage ensued, owner showed the middle finger to everyone, moved the undressing part behind a paywall. Site is still supported by payment processors, still hosts accounts of all the major preas/government/NGO organisations. There are some token actions from some governments but abs…

Well it’s different when someone is powerful enough that an entity trying to level a fine or shut down those systems will likely be shut down themselves

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

#145

Post by xboxnolifes »

isityettime wrote: post #135
bluefirebrand wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roblox is older than Minecraft...

Why do I remember learning about Minecraft way earlier than learning about Roblox?

You're not the only one. Im not sure how, but I didnt learn of Roblox's existence until at least 5 years after I learned about Minecraft. It somehow existed entirely outside of my social sphere, and I was an always online gamer.

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

#146

Post by vintermann »

jjmarr wrote: post #58
vintermann wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like a really counterproductive system. Usually in age verification, you prove that you're over a certain age. 9 year olds don't have very many ways to prove that they're 9 years old. What's stopping the creeps from pretending to be younger than they are?

They automatically assign you to an age group based on AI/guessing/face verification. If you've been assigned to an incorrect group, you need to do KYC verification with ID.

Exactly, but it's pretty clear adults can work around the automatic assignment (being adult makes you much better at figuring out how to fool such profiling systems). And the verification with ID is only good for proving that you're old, i.e. to keep kids out of adult spaces. It's no good for keeping adults out of kids spaces.

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

#147

Post by xboxnolifes »

bastard_op wrote: post #38

Roblox has long been known as a pedo farm, and talks with friends actually with kids all know it, so I don't know how it's still even around.

Because any social hotspot for children is going to be a pedophile farm. Its around because its popular, which is the same reason its a pedo farm.

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

#148

Post by vintermann »

dom96 wrote: post #104
iknowstuff wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was fake

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

One thing is sure: if they can be fooled, adults will figure out a way to fool it. (Young enough children might not, but that doesn't help security). And once they're in, their child victims and their parents will be all the more likely to assume they're a child.

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

#149

Post by finaard »

subscribed wrote: post #121
TheCoreh wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like a very reasonable system to ensure e.g. you and your classmate/friends can still interact as you grow up and switch age brackets. I wonder how families etc deal with it though? Can you play with your younger sibling/cousin? Is there some sort of parental approval/override?

I can play with my kids but we're not allowed to talk. They're not allowed to talk with each other as well. This sucks big time, and it will even more, because we soon won't be aple to play together at all: https://thenextweb.com/news/roblox-age-gated-account-tiers-k...

The last time (that I remember) people wanted to talk in a game, but could not teamspeak showed up.

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

#150

Post by latentsea »

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.

My son has played it for the last 3 years and this rings really true. He spends a lot of time dissing the CEO saying he's ruining it.
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