The popular children’s gaming platform Roblox might have a problem with mature content.
What’s happening: A new BBC report took a deep dive into Roblox, finding that gamers can find mature content in the game, such as strippers, couples having sex and people wearing Nazi uniforms.
Details: Roblox allows gamers to create and build worlds together. In those words, you can play games and connect with people.
- Naturally, this has been a successful game. Roblox told Bloomberg that about two-thirds of all U.S. children from ages 9 to 12 play the game.
Yes, but: Some players will develop spaces “where people can talk about sex — and where their avatars can have virtual sex,” according to BBC News. “In these games, Roblox’s rules are thrown out of the window.”
- These games are often only live for one hour as Roblox works to crack down on the mature content.
What they’re saying: “We know there is an extremely small subset of users who deliberately try to break the rules,” a Roblox spokesperson told the BBC.
- “We conduct a safety review of every single image, video, and audio file uploaded to Roblox, using a combination of human and machine detection,” the company said.
The bigger picture: Roblox is a potentially dangerous place for children, so it’s important for parents to know what is happening in the game for their kids.
- For example, a recent report from Vice found that players named “beamers” can hack into someone’s account, take the account’s valuable items and sell them in the game’s black markets.
- “We’ve spent over a decade building a stringent safety and security system and policies that we are proud of and that we are continuously evolving as our community grows,” a Roblox spokesperson said, according to PC Gamer. “The Roblox InfoSec team, in particular, actively mines various sources for threat intelligence, monitoring for malicious activity and taking appropriate action.”