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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

#91

Post by itsdrewmiller »

rsynnott wrote: post #86
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.

> When asked about the “scope of the problem” of predators in the application, Baszucki came in shoulders first saying, “We think of it not necessarily just as a problem, but an opportunity as well.” I mean… how much benefit of the doubt is one expected to give someone who runs a game for kids who sees paedophiles as an ‘opportunity’? Like, this isn’t a criminal trial, it’s a news article. There is no presumption on…

“Roblox CEO sees pedophiles as ‘opportunity’” would be a less biased headline that reports the actual interesting facts of the interview and would be more damaging to them in practice.

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

#92

Post by jswelker »

tinco wrote: post #14
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…

Easy way to know if Roblox is safe for children is to ask the following question: Is Roblox available on Nintendo? Nintendo would never turn away money, unless they feel it would damage their reputation as a company you can trust your children with. If they had believed Roblox was safe, they would have 100% taken that money.

Fortnite says hello!

(But yes I generally agree with your point.)

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

#93

Post by jswelker »

The answer IMO is to have a whitelist mentality toward online safety rather than a blacklist.

Parenting is essentially a form of mega censorship. So much that censoring is the default state of the child's interaction with the world, and a parent chooses to selectively and gradually uncensored certain things.

The open web is antithetical to raising children because it is, well, open. Before the Internet, there was no way for a child to interface with the entire world. It was a few tv channels, books at a library, kids in the neighborhood, and within these "platforms" it is quite easy for a parent to "blacklist" unwanted "content", e.g. "Don't hang out with Billy because he smokes pot, and if I see you with him, you're grounded."

The unpopular opinion but correct approach for kids on the Internet is to have everything blocked until explicitly approved--by the parent preferably, not by some curation algorithms a la YouTube Kids etc.

In terms of Roblox:

- mandatory age verification for any platform that is deemed to target children

- mandatory parental account for any child

- a parent account must whitelist all the individual games the child plays on Roblox

- communication transcripts saved for parents to view

- comms off by default for children

Source: parent of 3 kids dealing with this on a daily basis and seeing the obvious trainwrecks that occur when kids are left with free access.

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

#95

Post by throwaway290 »

yreg wrote: post #46
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

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 t…

No, there is no way. Yes it is hard to tell if it's ai. But humans play different. And also this is why anticheats exist.

> 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?

compared to roblox, sure. who would even argue against that?

but there are many games where it really don't matter. it's probably most games... car racing sim... football sim... strategy like civilization...

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

#96

Post by tasuki »

> The only thing that stopped this tantrum was allowing the CEO to talk about Polymarket, a cryptoscam-based prediction market, letting people place bets on things as ridiculous as awards ceremonies and future weather patterns.

I'm a fan of prediction markets. This makes me think the article is rather biased.

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

#97

Post by Ancapistani »

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 had always heard Roblox presented as kid-friendly and kid-safe.

I have a 12-year-old playing Roblox right now, couldn’t agree less.

Roblox is the 2025 equivalent of AOL chat rooms circa 1998. You should assume that a child playing it will encounter the worst of humanity, and if you aren’t aware of that you’re not paying attention.

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

#98

Post by Ancapistani »

tomaytotomato wrote: post #15

Reminds me of this scene in Silicon Valley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjtr64ZQUWA I've not got kids yet, but I do wonder if the best way to prepare them for the internet is by teaching them the many dangers by navigating it with them (scams, grooming, bullying, hacking)?

I can’t watch your link right now, but what you describe is exactly how I approach it.

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

#99

Post by defrost »

ares623 wrote: post #3

That part about adding a prediction market into Roblox to let kids start betting is something out of a comedy skit. Unbelievable. I hope that gets used as court evidence at some point.

The effectively silent response of the CEO in respect to seriously tackling a pedophile problem was damning, it's an understandably difficult problem with bad optics.

The fully open gleeful embrace of using Roblox to groom future gambling addicts as a path to future revenue streams is so far past damning it screams walking abyss of moral self awareness.

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

#100

Post by mcphage »

dgrin91 wrote: post #90
actionfromafar wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It must be tiring though to keep the "neutral" approach for every article. How many benefits of doubts is Roblox owed, really? Asking for a more neutral tone is almost akin to asking for Hunter S Thompson to rewrite "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" in a more neutral tone.

If a journalist does not at least attempt to present their viewpoint as neutral I will immediate presume they have irrational bias and grow skeptical of what the journalist is telling me - no matter what side of the issue their bias is on. In other words, if you talk to me like a salesman I will presume you are trying to sell me and I wont want to buy. Talk to me like an adult. Tell me what happened. That doesn't mea…

> If a journalist does not at least attempt to present their viewpoint as neutral I will immediate presume they have irrational bias and grow skeptical of what the journalist is telling me

So you’re saying you have an irrational bias against other people having opinions? Fascinating.

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