I don’t even need to tell you by now the amount of fire Roblox has been under recently, and the sheer amount of backlash they are receiving from concerned parents and congress members alike is huge. In comes adult-only experiences designed to engage the older audience rather than have members of varying ages mixing in public servers and games. Yikes…
Roblox announced that experiences which are labelled with the restricted maturity tag will soon only be made available to users aged 18 and over, and this change raises the age requirement from 17+, which will also begin being pushed out immediately. Starting August 28th, players under 18 can now no longer see experiences which are rather aged 18 and over in searches or recommendations, and along with this, later this year full access will be blocked for those users promptly. This could be seen as a step up from the team at Roblox who look to address the child safety concerns and allegations, but is it enough? I’m still skeptical.
The platform has also confirmed that the policy shift has applied to both players and creators. Creators who are under 18 will still be able to gain access to restricted projects they have published, but any new creations with the label will only be able to be published by developers aged 18 and up. Now, this is a small win for the company, as they have faced many walls approaching how they handle regulating safety for the original targeted audience and how they have failed to do so as of late, and as they look to address making some 18-plus content restricted from younger eyes, this is a win for the parents, even though the problem hasn’t halted there.
The concerns I speak about are concerns about child welfare when it comes to predatory users and being able to gain access to the same servers and creations as younger, more vulnerable users. As YouTuber Schlep noticed, when he made videos about catching those predatory users which he then posted to YouTube and on August 11th, Roblox banned Schlep from the site and anyone using a hashtag of “#freeschlep” as he was doing good for the community. A cover-up which didn’t quite cover the intended target, as they also sent a Cease-and-Desist letter to the creator. Not a great look if you ask me.
The whole Schlep situation, where the relatively large creator, who has over 600K subscribers, has claimed he led to six arrests of predators. Roblox’s letter, which was revealed, accused Schlep of “simulated child endangerment conversations,” and “sharing or soliciting personally identifiable information,” which “encourages users to move conversations off-platform.” Duh Roblox, that’s usually what happens when bad people attempt to make moves with vulnerable users, and them bad people got caught out by the YouTuber.
Alongside this situation, one celebrity saw this as an opportunity to really shine the lamp of truth on Roblox and address the safety concerns they had. Chris Hansen, notably known for his show To Catch a Predator, built a solid career of catching predators who prey on minors. And after Schlep got banned, he decided to team up with the creator to create a documentary on Roblox’s hardship of defending users against unwarranted behaviour.
With Hansen and Schlep forming that alliance, which seems uncanny and something truly morbid when it comes to Roblox, they plan to expose what has become a hunting ground for predators with access to younger users. This comes on the back of the CEO making comments about potentially creating a Roblox Dating platform on the well-known website for users to create a bond and “date without meeting in real life”, disgusting.
Now, in my opinion, are the children and younger users safe yet? Not at all, as I think that yes, whilst Roblox is making some sections restricted and 18+ only, what stops those users above that age accessing sections aimed towards the younger audience? Is there a countermeasure in place to stop this from happening? Because for me, there is still a concern for children here. While there are predators active within the platform, no section of it is safe. There has to be more done to keep younger people safe from harm and, no, it’s not just on the parents, it is on the team at Roblox to do better and ensure that everyone is protected from unlawful events.
Do you think there could be more done? I certainly believe so. As always, keep your kiddos safe and ensure they aren’t engaging in any unsavoury activity on the platform!
