> how long are you guys going to be going on about all this stuff?
Very Trump-like
Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
361–370 of 399 posts
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't buy this. Roblox like most games these days employ dark patterns to keep kids hooked, the real world can't compete with the online casino. We had Nintendo, but those games had an ending. Today's online games don't end.
Can’t both be true? It can be true that Roblox keeps kids hooked through shady practices but if not them, kids would have sought other places. Club Penguin, RuneScape, WOW, Xbox Live, all served similar functions for myself growing up, I don’t find it hard to believe I would have ended up on Roblox
I would agree it's both. Ideally we would make many games restricted access and most games games less addictive. At this stage the only viable plan I can think of is for parents to join a cult or cult like group where the parents are dedicated to restricted screen time and enforcing outdoor play. One parent alone can't make it happen. Maybe the quakers were onto something. :)
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#363Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's wrong with Minecraft? I'm not exactly a Microsoft fan, but am pretty impressed with how little control they have so far exerted over Java Edition, they even made modding easier recently by removing obfuscation. You can run your own server as much as you want with no fees, obligations or anything. And unless the kids know a server address, they can't easily join some third party server with weird stuff going on…
Minecraft is infested with ads including massive in-game ads and advertisers are all over servers, popular online influencers, etc. https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/lacoste-x-minecraft https://minecraft.wiki/w/Universal_Studios_Event https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/how-the-hell-do-you-throw-a-m...
Apparently Minecraft became what Second Life wanted to be.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't have to have those. Depending on your definition of "kids", most people on HN I imagine are not giving their kids phones, laptops, or tablets at young ages (maybe less than ~13?). And if they do, I imagine the devices are somewhat locked down and monitored. I think the more technologically literate a person is, the more wary they are of unfettered access to it for children. Hence, preferring a stationary d…
I agree desktops are best, and they are what my kids started with, but there is a lot of pressure to give kids phones. For example, where I live, the cheapest (monthly) bus tickets require an app, so kids need a smartphone to get to school (or their parents have to pay a lot more for daily tickets). There is a lot of social pressure on the kids too. There are lots of activities that have either moved online or are or…
>bus tickets require an app
this stuff seems criminal to me...and outright bigotry against poor people.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#365This is a sympton of something worse. The bigger issue: Roblox isn’t the real problem, it’s filling the gap left by the disappearance of unstructured, unsupervised play in the physical world. Kids used to build worlds, take risks, and form friendships outdoors. Now many have no safe places to roam, no peers outside scheduled activities, and no cultural permission to be on their own. So they do all that in Roblox inst…
I don't buy this. Roblox like most games these days employ dark patterns to keep kids hooked, the real world can't compete with the online casino. We had Nintendo, but those games had an ending. Today's online games don't end.
It's a parental thing.
I have children, they have friends. None of them have asked for Robux as a gift.
They play the free games together, chatting after school (and homework!) and stop if they hit a payment limit.
Kids can't be trapped by "dark patterns" into paying, they don't have credit cards or money to spend. It's always the parents who give in.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#366Im always frustrated by such journalism; "why won't they do something!?" . What is there to do besides, face id , chat controlor, heavy moderation, and if it were done, a whole other crowd wpuld have their pitchforks ready to go.
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#367Putting aside my personal concerns and frustrations with the state of parental controls (it’s hell), what does the author propose here? By his own admission the controls which companies have been pressured to implement thus far are incomplete / can be bypassed. There is of course only one, complete solution that comes to mind - universal digital ID for all humans on the internet - which is a different kind of nightma…
One possibility: hold executives, product managers, and engineers personally criminally liable for building a system that puts inappropriate material in front of children or connects them with predators, and let them figure out how they'd like to avoid that liability. Could be through building something more robust (e.g. only allowing kids to play with pre-whitelisted friends, not any anonymous user), or hiring a leg…
> e.g. only allowing kids to play with pre-whitelisted friends
if any of your friends are playing the game and the server is not full, they already try to put you in the same server
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#368do y'alls hold governments accountable for the crimes their citizens do?
Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#369It'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.
what have they replaced Fortnite with? more physical play or something digital?
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Re: Roblox is a problem but it's a symptom of something worse
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thankfully? Why don't you just forbid him to play Fortnite? Sounds like your son doesn't listen to you, and that's a problem.
People are downvoting this but it's the correct response. I will never worry about Roblox because my child will never be able to play it at home. Problem solved. I understand that maybe non-technical people might not know to think about these things, but in this crowd this response should be the most upvoted. These things are poinsons. Don't feed your children poison. It's pretty simple. "They'll be left out!" Good!…
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