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Both of my kids played a lot of Roblox until we banned it. They easily became obsessed and were violent when removed, even with a tightly controlled schedule. T

• wizzard 7y ago
  Roblox games are 95% garbage in my experience. Apparently there are a few good ones, because somehow they are allowed to sell merch in toy stores — but those are certainly not the ones my kids encounter. All I ever see them play is some variation on running around jumping on buttons, while half the screen is covered in ads trying to get them to do IAPs.
  • skrebbel 7y ago
    My six year old plays the "theme park tycoon" game a lot in Roblox and it's truly splendid. No need to spend any real money, the social part is very minimal and very nice (you can visit theme parks made by others). The controls are a bit wacky here and there but nothing unlearnable.
    • wizzard 7y ago
      Maybe I’ll try to steer them towards that. We tried roller coaster tycoon but the learning curve is pretty steep.
  • smaryjerry 7y ago
    Most games are free copies of other popular full games and most use copyrighted music in them. I'm surprised they haven't had a big copyright crackdown. As far as I know only the pokemon roblox game was shutdown due to copyright. Nintendo is notorious for that though so no surprise.
• kimberlythomp99 7y ago
  Video games can have a very similar reaction on the brain as drugs in the release of dopamine. This is my biggest fear raising my kids in this technology driven age.
  • Hidios 7y ago
    > Video games can have a very similar reaction on the brain as drugs in the release of dopamine. This is my biggest fear raising my kids in this technology driven age. Umm you stop eating food if you are completely starved of dopamine. Are you afraid of living in this... Food...driven world, considering they are much more easily available than games?
  • weq 7y ago
    This isnt just games. Lets be frank. We can become addicted to anything given the right physiological triggers. Capitalism has optimised itself to the point where you are nothing more then meta data. Its at the point where a team of accredited people can sit infront of the meta data, and your product, and they can design ways to trigger dopamine responses. Putting "any" kind of "modern product" in your childs hand will lead to one thing. Now put a connected device in their hands, and your putting your child in the hands of unlimited amounts of teams, using unlimited amounts of tickery, to earn profit from your child. Now add back in a dynmically manipulated game environment, where these tools are utilised by predators to exploit your child for their version on profit. This is the challenge of being a modern parent. Junk food, everywhere, all the time. https://www.sparringmind.com/supernormal-stimuli/ https://www.sparringmind.com/supernormal-stimuli/
    • kennyadam 7y ago
      Yeah, it's definitely not just video games. I became physically dependant on opiates in much the same way.
      • synctext 7y ago
        Heavy. There is a scientific book discussing these topics. Centered around our 'neanderthal within': "The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution", https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465020429/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465020429/
• Rotdhizon 7y ago
  As someone in their early 20s who dabbles on Roblox with some frequency, this completely contradicts my own experience. Granted I only play games that show up in the popular games section on the homepage. I don't go out of my way to find the weird stuff. I suppose it is similar to the Elsagate stuff kids were getting into on Youtube, kids have a remarkable talent to go down rabbit holes you didn't know existed and find the disturbing content. Roblox also has a really bad problem with child/teen dating, so much so that they now have an in game report option specifically for dating behavior. I imagine it is extremely difficult for the Roblox staff to moderate the disturbing content as they have their hands full around the clock. From people creating thousands of bot accounts to boost their games, security problems revolving around people getting their games/assets/money stolen, people constantly finding new ways to cheat in game, to the issues that you described. I'd also think that the people who engage in the behavior that you described are seasoned in what they do, knowing how to avoid the watchful eye of moderation and parents alike.
  • pastrami_panda 7y ago
    I just wanted to point out that the main thing about Elsagate was how easily you'd get caught in an infested recommendation spiral without actively searching for it. The whole thing was especially disturbing due to the fact that you could watch a popular theme and the recommendation engine would quickly find more and more sinister videos.
  • Lendal 7y ago
    Reminds me of GTA. I stayed far away from it because it had an awful reputation in the media. Finally when GTA5 came out I tried it for the first time and it was nothing like the stories. I was expecting terrible awful very bad things. But it wasn't anything like that when I tried it. So I think the bad stories are more a reflection of the players playing it than the game. For whatever reason certain types of people will gravitate toward the cesspool hidden underneath the actual game and find a way to turn the whole experience into a monstrous tragedy.
    • Faark 7y ago
      "Protect the kids" reporting about an offline game hardly compares to the dangers from online communities. I don't behave like a 12 year old girl, thus I'll never be treated like one. Even if I wanted to experience it, I'd probably be unable to even imitate one. So its a bit more than just people finding it awesome that you can get your money back by killing the hooker.
• mevile 7y ago
  My daughter plays roblox and I've never seen anything like this when watching her play. I've tried to educate her about this kind of stuff because I know she'll be exposed to it eventually. I'd hope she come talk to me about it if she sees it.
  • mac01021 7y ago
    > I'd hope she come talk to me about it if she sees it. What should that conversation look like? If you've educated her already, wouldn't it be fine for her simply to dismiss it and move on when she encounters it?
    • sidlls 7y ago
      Children don't process things the same way adults do, partially because just about everything they experience is new in a fundamental and total way that isn't true for adults. They can be prepared by adults for events but typically they'll still have questions and anxieties about them.
• antpls 7y ago
  What if multiplayer video games actually teach your kids to not blindly trust people ? At first they will be scammed a few time, but they will learn, and with minimal consequences. Isn't it better for your kids to experience the "worst" behaviors in a virtual simulation under your control rather than in real life when they will be adult and possibly alone ? I believe it's fine to have your kids safely experience "unethical" behaviors, as long as you speak with them. I guess there have been studies about it, I'm wondering. Does anyone have scientific pointers about it ?
  • tapland 7y ago
    It's also important to have clear distinctions between things that are questionable but not harmful, and that the kids feel that they can sound the alarm when things are really wrong. There are a lot of pictures and words that are inappropriate and shouldn't be in kids games. But it's really important to convey that there is a difference between that, and even pictures of feet, to pictures of you nude or pictures with your face in them. I met people from chatrooms some 16 years ago when I was 14, with friends, at a public space and my friends parents knew the place well and knew when and where we were going. Was a fun double date. A lot of people I know would not tell any adult and lie about where they are going to avoid shame and anger.
    • b_tterc_p 7y ago
      I feel like most people would put pictures of children’s feet in the absolutely not ok bucket
      • tapland 7y ago
        If you feel that it's in the same bucket as sending full frontal nudes with identifiable face, that's your decision to make as a parent. Your kids are going to send pictures to other people.
        • b_tterc_p 7y ago
          I’m not sure how you imagine communicating such things to a child. Do you have a flip chart with full frontal nudes in red and feet pictures in orange? It’s not like there’s anything more prohibitive than “absolutely not ok”. Both are beyond that. Your argument sounds like needing to clarify that Fentanyl is worse than heroin, and that if I don’t make it clear that fentanyl is worse, they’re going to do both? If you can prevent either, you should prevent both.
• ekc 7y ago
  >They easily became obsessed and were violent when removed, even with a tightly controlled schedule. They would try to connect to offer WiFi networks to get access and would steal our phones to get access. Is that not a sign of bad parenting?
  • namanyayg 7y ago
    Astounding insensitivity. It's the parents' fault that a kid becomes addicted to a game literally designed to be addictive? Not sure about others but these stories parallel my thousands of hours in RuneScape, including "trust trades". Nostalgic.
  • bonestamp2 7y ago
    Kids are going to have problems regardless of parenting quality. It's not a parent's job to keep kids away from all hazards, the job is to help them learn and grow by allowing them enough space to encounter problems (without any serious risk of course) and then to guide them into realizing why those things were wrong and helping them correct those problems. It sounds like they're excellent parents and doing the job perfectly.
    • Yajirobe 7y ago
      They banned the game and then you say: > It's not a parent's job to keep kids away from all hazards
      • bonestamp2 7y ago
        Those are two different points in the timeline though. The kids encountered that hazard because the parents didn't keep them from all hazards. But, it is the parents job to keep them away from things after they become a problem. It would be poor parenting to let them keep playing the game if it has become a problem.
  • rdtsc 7y ago
    > Is that not a sign of bad parenting? That seems a bit harsh. OP shared a story about their family, it doesn't seem fair to accuse them of bad parenting just based on that story. They said they banned the game, to resolve the problem. That's a sign of good parenting perhaps. But without context it's hard to say. > They would try to connect to offer WiFi networks to get access and would steal our phones to get access. In general, at one level parents do want their kids to try to hack the rules or fight back against them a bit. Even though rationally we might say they should be completely obedient. If the children actually were completely obedient they might have a hard time in certain situations later in life.
• russdpale 7y ago
  Always the same shit from these companies also: “We started Roblox over a decade ago with a vision to bring people from all over the world together through play,” A vision. To bring people together. Im over the whole 'vision to bring people together and closer thing.'
• fencepost 7y ago
  I used to play some Minecraft on servers, and while most players are great you end up with a few toxic ones. A lot of how this is handled comes down to who's running the server and how they handle administration and policies. No clue how Roblox works and whether it has the same kind of independent server community. Still I made it a point to make it clear that I was not a kid and there was no way I was getting into non-group chats with anyone. The only people I ever ended up on any kind of chat with (Skype, then Discord) were the relatively tight group that I was playing with, most of whom were college-age or a bit older. We pretty much dominated that server until most of us lost interest and drifted away due to the real world.
• ptah 7y ago
  you could be cutting your kids off from their friends by doing this. it is unnecessarily cruel
• koonsolo 7y ago
  My own son had this period where he was obsessed with playing on the XBox. When I tried to limit his time, he became agressive. So I said "Wow, if XBox has this influence on you, maybe you should stop completely. What do you think?". His smart reaction was to show that he could play a limited time, and be good afterwards. Now I don't have any problems with him. The thing with kids is that you will not be there all the time, especially when they get older. So banning something they like, doesn't seem like a good solution to me. They will have to handle such impulses themselves. So if you can let them handle their own impulses, that is way better. For example I will never tell my kids that they cannot smoke, because that will be out of my control anyway. But when we walk to a hospital, there are always patients outside smoking (who obviously look sick). Then I tell them "look at those smokers, how sick they are. And it really smells bad too" etc. When I ask them about smoking, they have very negative associations with it. So if your kids are doing inappropriate things to play, maybe talk to them as if they are adults, and make a reasonable deal. And show them how their decisions will impact them. Raising kids is not about enforcing rules, it's preparing them for the real world where they need to make their own decisions.
  • sky_rw 7y ago
    I was only allowed 2 hours of Sega Genesis play, which was just enough to get to the final boss in Sonic and die. Never beat it. In hindsight this prepared me for the 2 constants in the real world: Never having enough time, and constant disappointment.
    • wil421 7y ago
      Rookie mistake. You have to leave the Sega on come back the next day when you have your allotted time. God forbid someone vacuums and uses your plug.
      • OoOOo 7y ago
        "WHO THE EFF UNPAUSED MY GAME!"
      • jonnydubowsky 7y ago
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• ericlewis 7y ago
  Similar experience with our 2yo & YouTube. It is banned in our house for now, because 2yo doesn't exactly understand moderation, but we are willing to open it back up as they get older and understand a bit more.
  • sandos 7y ago
    Good for you. Our 5 and 7 year olds get "banned" from youtube every now and then when we detect the slightest bit of "mania", which they do get. In Sweden no screen time is recommended until the age of two, and I would easily say that until 3 or 4 years of age, screen time is really not necessary and possible harmful.
  • pnutjam 7y ago
    Check out the Amazon FreePlay system. I got a "kids edition" kindle for my 2 year old, it came with a year of freeplay and I've kept it going since it's such a good value. Basically, they get access to all the kids apps, books, and videos in the kindle store. You can limit the age appropriate level. My biggest complaint is how tedious it is to remove apps, since the kids eventually fill up the kindle.
• ulkesh 7y ago
  And it's even worse because Roblox support is pure crap. Not only does it take a minimum of 3 days to reach anyone, they also have nothing in place to verify an account holder in case the account was compromised. They require the original email address and cannot verify in any other way. We had to completely ban Roblox as well, even using OpenDNS to block it, but that just led to the use of other networks. We're now not letting any internet access without us being right there in the same room. We're done with Roblox and its ilk. By the time our child will be allowed access again, it will be a distant memory in the context of later teen life.
  • skyfallkavu 7y ago
    I wouldn't like to tell someone else how to parent, especially since as mentioned earlier all children are different. But, a small story. I had a friend back in university who's parents did the same. Completely locked down with no internet access unless it was explicitly with her parents observation well into her late-teens. She found freedom when she went away to university, and with that freedom she didn't know how to regulate it. She'd be up all hours of the night scrolling everything shes missed in years past. Games, pop culture references, ancient memes, hours and hours of YouTube playlists, etc. It affected her schooling to the point where she almost withdrew because she'd be so wrapped up in the internet, she wouldn't know how to time-manage for completing assignments or even getting to class. Needless to say her inability to impulse control caused quite a few GPA scares and a lot of money spent on off-term sessions. I remember we agreed as an apartment to put a parental control pin on the communal Xbox because she'd sit for hours and skip class to play. I can't quite say all this is related to her parents essentially banning her from technology, but it certainly changed my view on how I'd introduce my child to the internet. We're coming to view internet addition similar to drug or alcohol abuse; and I think any sort of responsible moderation that can be learned as a child continues as skills into adulthood.
    • ulkesh 7y ago
      It won't be that bad, it'll just be with us around so our child at least knows to behave and adhere to what we've taught. When I said not allowed access, it's limited to Roblox. Will still have a Minecraft Realm, still have access to the Internet in various ways, but we have to govern it with a more common sense approach.
• mcs_ 7y ago
  Education must deal with dependencies, of any kind. Prohibition is not a stable and durable solution. Transition to a better dependency is the key to mitigate the bad effects of a wrong activity.
• nvarsj 7y ago
  This sounds almost identical to the argument my parents used in the 90s to ban DnD. Are you sure you’re not getting swept up in parental paranoia?
• randiantech 7y ago
  This is a very similar experience that I had my 8 yo kid, though its not something that exclusive of Roblox. Same thing happened with Nintendo Switch, Minecraft and Youtube.
• plughs 7y ago
  I hope you don't mind a couple of questions, my daughter(8) has been asking to play Roblox as a lot of her friends are on it. Being an engineer, I know full well that "filtering and pre-reviewing content" is pure marketing BS. That said, while I'm not delighted with the possiblities of adult content and in-game currency scams, I might not let that stop her from playing. But predators - I'm planning on 'white listing' her chat options so she can only chat with known friends. Are there any vulnerabilities there? I also am worried about how obsessed she could get. I'm willing to keep a close eye on it - unfortunately she's probably going to start obsessing about online games sooner or later, and perhaps the best time to start talking about it is now - while she still trusts my judgment - than later when she's ( possibly ) a surly teen.