#ROADBLOCKS SAFE FOR GAMES SIMULATOR#

Roblox filters potentially inappropriate user-made skins and chat, as well as personal information. This immense volume of experiences makes it more challenging to moderate, despite the company’s active role in monitoring the platform. Users can choose between roughly 9 million experiences, according to Roblox’s website. This presents a content moderation problem. “Roblox is making great changes and efforts to inform parents about the content found in particular games with age guidelines, but it’s still up to parents to monitor their younger children and teach them online safety guidelines and rules to follow” According to a Roblox spokesperson, the platform had 58.8 million daily active users in the third quarter of 2022, 46% of whom identify as being younger than 13 years old. This gives young users vast opportunities to develop and play in any virtual worlds and games they imagine. The platform almost works like YouTube - except instead of uploading videos, any user can design and publish a game, or as Roblox calls it, an “ experience” for others to play. Afterward, other players in the game appeared to take turns doing role-play that simulated an assault of her character, an incident that has happened to others on Roblox.Īnyone can make a game on Roblox. In the game, her character slipped on a puddle and got stuck on the ground. Carolyn told Polygon she expected some potty humor, but what she found was much worse.

#ROADBLOCKS SAFE FOR GAMES SIMULATOR#

In the following tweets, Carolyn described additional troubling content she encountered while playing on the platform, including a game called Public Bathroom Simulator that mimicked a public restroom environment. Something is very wrong with Roblox Corp,” she said in a tweet thread. I just spent six hours playing the games meant for 5-year-olds and it was freaking awful. I deleted my kids’ Roblox accounts, and recommend you guys do too. She made the hard decision to stop allowing her kids to play. Two years later, a slew of content moderation changes at Roblox has made it harder for her to control what her young children see. Roblox became a vital way for kids to connect virtually during the pandemic, and despite her concerns about her kids, ages 12 and under, interacting with others online, Carolyn and her husband decided to let them play. Her children wanted to join Roblox, a platform that allows users to create and host online multiplayer games.

Roughly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, Carolyn, a mother of six, finally capitulated to her kids’ begging.

Roadblocks safe for games