Summary
Robloxco-founder and CEO Dave Baszucki has told parents who are concerned about their child’s online activity to simply not “let your kids be on Roblox”.
When Roblox first started out many years ago, it was generally viewed as nothing more than a fun distraction and a place for kids to play user-created content. Over time, though,it’s grown into becoming one of the biggest online games of all time, and one that only seems to be getting bigger and bigger as time goes on.
That growth has presented Roblox with a number of issues, though, with many claims that children aren’t being protected from explicit or dangerous content.There have even been reports of a “thriving underworld” of teenage scammers, hackers, and thievesplaying Roblox and trying to make money off of other players.
Roblox CEO Tells Worried Parents Not To Let Their Kids Play Online
These issues have resulted in Roblox having a negative reputation when it comes to child safety online, which is something the platform has been aiming to correct recently,such as by removing adverts for players under 13. While there’s a lot of work to be done when it comes to Roblox’s child-friendly features, the game’s CEO has offered some simple advice for worried parents.
That advice,as pointed out by VGCand originallyshared in an interview with the BBC, is simple - don’t let your kids play Roblox. The game’s CEO and co-founder, Dave Baszucki shared that simple message when asked about what parents should do if they don’t want their kids on the platform, causing him to be surprisingly honest.
Baszucki noted that the message seems a “little counterintuitive”, but that he trusts parents to make their own decisions when it comes to safety online. The CEO also points out that there are protections in place for players as the developers watch out for bullying and harassment, and even reach out to law enforcement if it’s “necessary”.
We do in the company take the attitude that any bad, even one bad incident, is one too many. - Dave Baszucki
During the interview, the BBC shared some of the more inappropriate level names with the Roblox CEO, who responded by saying thathe has faith in the game’s age-rating systems and that every level is judged by a “consistent policy”. Right now, that doesn’t seem to be the case, but it does look like safety is hopefully becoming more of a focus for the team.
