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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

#22
"According to the company, 73% of age-checked daily active users on Roblox were under 18, with 35% under 13 as of Jan. 31."

The story under the story seems to be Roblox has lost plausible deniability.

With increasing–and, in my view, inevitable–calls for age gating social media, these data mean between a third and three quarters of Roblox's users could soon be banned from monetisation or banned entirely from their platform.

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

#24
There was a time 5-10 years ago where Roblox was going on a ex-FAANG hiring spree and folks on Blind were pulling in insane salaries (probably still pay amazing).. but to work for fucking Roblox. Truly a "these are not my people" moment.

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

#25

"While our aggressive push to enhance safety lowers our expectations for topline growth in 2026, it makes our platform fundamentally better and amplifies the long-term growth potential of Roblox through more effective content targeting, tailored communication experiences, and improved community sentiment," the company wrote in its letter to shareholders. Actual ghouls.

That interview of their CEO with the NYT from last year was insane. If you've never seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpIXRgMlPo4

> interview of their CEO with the NYT

Do you have a source from the New York Times? (EDIT: Nvm.)

Second EDIT: the CEO reminds me of the energy vampire from What We Do in the Shadows.

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

#26

"According to the company, 73% of age-checked daily active users on Roblox were under 18, with 35% under 13 as of Jan. 31." The story under the story seems to be Roblox has lost plausible deniability. With increasing–and, in my view, inevitable–calls for age gating social media, these data mean between a third and three quarters of Roblox's users could soon be banned from monetisation or banned entirely from their pl…

Don't you have it backwards?

Isn't Roblox inherently for children, hence they'd want to ban the adults?

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

#27

Investors are hilarious. What’s better: more investment in child safety measures so that a company remains a long term product that parents allow their children on, or no safety measures to increase profit so that parents stop letting their kids be on the platform, thereby killing long term viability of the product? Quarterly thinking is the bane of the health of corporate America.

In this case, "child safety measures" includes not just "stopping child predators," but also "not letting kids use their parents' credit card to buy $500 of Robux" and "not letting underage users buy lootboxes, aka gambling".

It's completely understandable that the company, which profits off children, putting in measures making it harder to profit off children, would lower both its long and short-term valuations.

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

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That interview of their CEO with the NYT from last year was insane. If you've never seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpIXRgMlPo4

> interview of their CEO with the NYT Do you have a source from the New York Times ? (EDIT: Nvm.) Second EDIT: the CEO reminds me of the energy vampire from What We Do in the Shadows .

That video is from the New York Times official account.

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

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That interview of their CEO with the NYT from last year was insane. If you've never seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpIXRgMlPo4

> interview of their CEO with the NYT Do you have a source from the New York Times ? (EDIT: Nvm.) Second EDIT: the CEO reminds me of the energy vampire from What We Do in the Shadows .

Maybe they edited their comment after you saw it, but they included a link to a video from the NYT YouTube channel.

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

#30

"According to the company, 73% of age-checked daily active users on Roblox were under 18, with 35% under 13 as of Jan. 31." The story under the story seems to be Roblox has lost plausible deniability. With increasing–and, in my view, inevitable–calls for age gating social media, these data mean between a third and three quarters of Roblox's users could soon be banned from monetisation or banned entirely from their pl…

Don't you have it backwards? Isn't Roblox inherently for children, hence they'd want to ban the adults?

> Isn't Roblox inherently for children, hence they'd want to ban the adults?

Two thirds of Americans believe in "setting limits on how much time minors can spend on social media" [1]. Where we have limited polling, a similar fraction support "banning social media use for all kids under 14" [2].

Joe Camel [3] was also intended for children.

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/31/81-of-us-...

[2] https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/poll-most-mass-voters-su...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Camel

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