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Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

kotaku.com

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Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#41

Post by tclancy »

croes wrote: post #26

So what measure beside total surveillance would work? Face ID? Once or multiple times without prior notice? The former can easily circumvented by letting a child create the account and taking it over after Facebook ID. Wasn’t the UK system the one that could be fooled by a video game?

Rethinking the problem? Engaging with the questions like a human being and not a snake oil salesman? Falling back on the Scunthorpe Problem and how easy it is for people to move chat to another platform comes across as not actually concerned at all. You could just make up stuff on the spot and sound more reassuring and human. For example: “one thing we track is users who predominantly engage in chat, which is common enough, but we then filter for people constantly contacting new strangers and then focus on the kinds of conversations”, blah blah blah.

Once he gets to the high five stuff, it’s clear the person is a twelve year old themself. Skibidi toilet.

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#42

Post by nitwit005 »

vintagedave wrote: post #6

I don't have children, but friends and family do, and I had always heard Roblox presented as kid-friendly and kid-safe. This meant I heard about someone's child playing Roblox and, thinking it was kindof an electronic construction set, ie a great learning and play tool,[0] I felt no concerns at all. To describe this interview as a 'car crash' is almost underselling it. I feel terrified. Most of all, what are my frien…

I find it puzzling you imagined tools for kids to build things to be somehow safe on its own.

If a game provides the ability for kids to build things out of blocks, those same kids will make pornographic images out of those blocks.

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#43

Post by mhast »

pjmlp wrote: post #32
vintagedave wrote: post #6

I don't have children, but friends and family do, and I had always heard Roblox presented as kid-friendly and kid-safe. This meant I heard about someone's child playing Roblox and, thinking it was kindof an electronic construction set, ie a great learning and play tool,[0] I felt no concerns at all. To describe this interview as a 'car crash' is almost underselling it. I feel terrified. Most of all, what are my frien…

There are several documentaries on how Roblox explores children, relatively easy to find. Especially the whole virtual economy where they profit from children work, without giving anything back, due to how virtual money converts back to real currencies.

"People Make Games" on YouTube made some videos about it. Recommended watching for any parent who is trying to figure out if they should allow their child on Roblox. (Spoilers, the answer is "no".)

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#44

Post by huevosabio »

noitpmeder wrote: post #4

To say nothing of the Roblox situation, anyone else having a hard time reading this piece of "reporting"? It reads, to me, as so obviously slanted and opinionated against Roblox from the outset. It's not trying to portray facts, it's clearly trying to make the reader interpret the situation in an anti-roblox light, instead of letting the reader arrive there on their own.

Yes, I closed it immidiately as it had the tone of a tabloid.

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#45

Post by unnamed76ri »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #21

"Car-Crash Interview" is such a weird term I was literally expecting him to be in an interview while driving or something and get into a car crash...

Same. I thought he had caused a car crash and took as an opportunity to promote Roblox.

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#46

Post by yreg »

throwaway290 wrote: post #27
yreg wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anything that's online and anything that has large multiplayer lobbies/worlds is inherently very low on the kid safety gauge, no?

nope, in many games there's no chat and any interaction between players is only within the rules of the game. it's very safe. you cannot stalk a kid or even know its a kid. somebody mentioned nintendo platform, see that for example

Fair enough, but I think creativity can usually escape the box and make it possible to communicate within the limitations imposed by the game.

And if not, then what even is the value of playing online as opposed to locally with AIs?

If children want to play together with their friends, isn't it much better to spin them a Minecraft server or such for friends they know from real life instead of playing games limiting them by "very narrowly specific interactions" anyway?

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#47

Post by sitkack »

The article doesn't even directly mention Schlep https://www.youtube.com/@RealSchlep/videos whom Roblox kicked off the platform for catching pedophiles.

Roblox Is Threatening to Sue Me For Protecting Kids (Schlep) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqAw_NjHK8

Roblox, Take a Seat (ft: Chris Hansen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcVPPOB8TQ

#freeschlep

It was awesome seeing the kids on Roblox revolt against Baszucki for doubling down on supporting pedophiles.

The leadership team at Roblox is so entirely tone deaf, if I were the the board, I'd remove them all. I watched Baszucki and

This is in addition to the money laundering and dystopian hellscape that is the whole game publishing platform that has been documented here on hn.

Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ

Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAaY

My own child says that no parent should allow their child on Roblox. Smart kid.

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#48

Post by mhast »

noitpmeder wrote: post #40
throwaway290 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

nope, in many games there's no chat and any interaction between players is only within the rules of the game. it's very safe. you cannot stalk a kid or even know its a kid. somebody mentioned nintendo platform, see that for example

But most games have unrestricted chat, aside from maybe wordlist filters ... Wow, runescape, call of duty, battlefield, ... Didn't and don't they still all have basically unrestricted chat? Sure they might not be expressly marketed to kids, but everyone I knew was playing wow and runescape in elementary school with no issues.

None of those games are made for children. Particularly not CoD and Battlefield.

That doesn't mean kids don't want to play them. But Roblox is pitching itself as a safe space for kids.

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#49

Post by rubyfan »

When I was a kid, I loved BBSs and the technicality of building a computer and the wild west that was the internet. Now that I have kids of my own, I won’t let them go near some of this stuff. It’s not because I’m worried they will do something dumb on their own but because I think tech has become predatory of all users and society in general.

Re: Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

#50

Post by lll-o-lll »

yreg wrote: post #19
vintagedave wrote: post #6

I don't have children, but friends and family do, and I had always heard Roblox presented as kid-friendly and kid-safe. This meant I heard about someone's child playing Roblox and, thinking it was kindof an electronic construction set, ie a great learning and play tool,[0] I felt no concerns at all. To describe this interview as a 'car crash' is almost underselling it. I feel terrified. Most of all, what are my frien…

Anything that's online and anything that has large multiplayer lobbies/worlds is inherently very low on the kid safety gauge, no?

Yeah, no. Nintendo, as the other poster said. Random stranger interaction == bad. Can’t verify age == bad.

Can only add your friends for chat? Is fine.

I feel like this same strategy is sane for adults also. Before the internet, we did fine making friends and playing games with people we actually know. So much of the awfulness of the modern online space comes from anonymous interactions with strangers. I don’t think human social connections are able to scale in the way the internet enables.

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