A few parents have voiced concerns over the safety issues surrounding the Roblox platform for their kids. Sherine and myself have decided to address the concerns in this post.
Often known as an imagination platform for kids, Roblox is now one of the most popular games for children. During the pandemic, Roblox has seen millions of users added to its platform, of which 67% of those are under 16. Therefore, there is a high chance that your child might already have a Roblox app installed on one of his/her devices.
So what makes Roblox so attractive to children?
Unlike Minecraft, Roblox not only provides a free online gaming platform, but it allows users to design their games. Currently, there are around 40,000 games in the Roblox platform created by amateur creators. This platform encourages young digital creators to create, customize, collaborate and successfully publish their games:
1. Creating – Roblox studio tools are easy and friendly for new coders to create games. Players have the freedom to let their imaginations run wild and make it come to life. For example, kids can create their own dream house or compete in a racing game that they have created. Additionally, in the process of building their games, they are learning how to code, which is a useful skill as the world is becoming more and more digitalized.
2. Customizing – Kids can freely customize their avatars and update their games according to their interests!
3. Community – Having the perks of a global online learning platform, Roblox connects millions of users around the world to collaborate, create and play together. With a never-ending supply of games on the platform, people can challenge each other or engage in teams to complete quests and missions. Especially during the pandemic, Roblox users can utilize this platform to socialize and play with other like-minded people.
However, despite the attractiveness of Roblox, these multiplayer games are still subjected to risks of exposure to sexual and violent content. Recently, BBC News reported an incident of sexual content in Roblox games where avatars were seen to engage in virtual sexual activities. This has caused parents worldwide to grapple with the concern of whether Roblox is safe for kids.
Knowing this, what is Roblox doing to address safety concerns?
Firstly, Roblox uses both AI and a human review team consisting of 2300 people to monitor the game contents. These systems serve to filter out inappropriate chat behaviour and monitor the safety of the games in multiple languages. They keep an eye out for individuals who are misleading users into clicking external restricted links or sharing personal information.
Additionally, they are continuously developing improved parental controls to help protect kids against violent and sexual content. They also have age verification tools and filters catered to different age groups to restrict who children can interact with, and which experiences they can access.
What can you do as a parent?
1. Set your child’s birthdate under 13 to automatically activate content filtering. For users under 13, Roblox automatically blocks inappropriate content (ex. violent or adult scenes) and prohibits the posting of personal information.
2. Set native parental controls. As a parent, you can use these controls to curate your kids’ content and create a list of age-appropriate games. The controls can also be restricted using a PIN code to prevent your child from altering it themselves.
3. Restrict your child’s correspondence to only approved friends in the game. Alternatively, join our Empire Code Roblox Group where we connect Empire Code students with each other.
4. Block or report disruptive players.
5. Do not save credit card information inside your child’s game because Roblox has a lot of pop-up ads to buy Robux. I have a friend who had to cough up EUR 1,500 for her daughter’s purchases via her credit card.
6. Play with your kids! By playing together, you can get a better understanding of Roblox, get to know what kind of games your kids like, the content that they are being exposed to, and most importantly educate them to never share personal information or click on suspicious links online.
Incidents can be minimized if parents are involved in regulating their child’s content, thus making Roblox a safe gaming platform for kids. Roblox has a wide range of benefits to offer as it teaches kids coding, game design, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills – skills that are useful for future careers in science, technology, engineering, and math! Interested to find out more about our Roblox classes? Find out more HERE.
References:
Is Roblox safe for kids? A guide for parents and families. Bark. (2021, October 6). Retrieved March 5, 2022, from https://www.bark.us/blog/is-roblox-safe-for-kids/
Is Roblox safe for kids? app safety guide for parents. Qustodio. (2021, October 19). Retrieved March 5, 2022, from https://www.qustodio.com/en/2021/05/23/is-roblox-safe-for-kids-app-safety-guide-for-parents/
Maressa Brown By Maressa Brown January 25, 2021. (n.d.). Is roblox safe for kids? Parents. Retrieved March 5, 2022, from https://www.parents.com/kids/safety/internet/is-roblox-safe-for-kids/