7 ms·

As a parent with two kids who like minecraft - is Roblox safe for kids? I've heard yes and no.

DanBC 6y ago
Roblox covers several different things which is why the messaging is mixed. Also, parents have varying attitudes to risk. The PC version is not safe for children. The console platform versions are safer for children because they have controls over messaging. The quality control of the games is minimal. Parents need to be aware that Roblox stuffs in-app payments everywhere and these can be excessive and in-your-face. My child played Roblox on Xbox One but never found it a particularly enjoyable experience.
- jatsign 6y ago
  Thanks. My kids would probably play it on their iPads (we don't even have a PC). Most of their iPad games offer in-app purchases already or force them to watch commercials. It's the messaging that concerns me most.
  - Thlom 6y ago
    My kid play on her tablet or iPhone (mostly). I notice there is a chat window, but don't think she pays much attention to it. She and her friends use facetime for in-game communication.
- da_big_ghey 6y ago
  > The PC version is not safe for children. I'm curious what you mean by this. What makes something safe for children or not? (This is an honest question from someone who doesn't have children and so doesn't really know.) It's interesting that a game would be "safe" on one platform but not another.
  - fullstop 6y ago
    It's much more difficult to chat with other players on Xbox.
  - ffpip 6y ago
    Maybe spam messages, cuss words, obscene figures and stuff Games on PS4 are way safer. It's like a restricted platform. Comparing Rocket League's chat on PC and PS4 is enough to know the difference. While playing on your PC, you can quickly abuse/spam the other player because you have a keyboard to type on. Because PS4 only has a virtual keyboard, you don't have enough time to use the controller to type whatever you want. You have to use some preloaded custom messages like 'Nice Shot', 'Excellent Save!'
  - stu2b50 6y ago
    Roblox isn't so much a "game" as a platform for making games. Think Gmod. As a result, the more "creative freedom" you have, the more the often teen+ aged developers do what people that age do with creative freedom.
  - DanBC 6y ago
    Predators will attack anywhere that children gather. Children gather in Roblox, and predators targeted Roblox. The features that make something more or less safe are the controls put around preventing that from happening, minimising the risk, being very clear to parents about what's expected of them, having excellent moderation, and having excellent reporting. The PC version of roblox fails all of these somewhat. Many parents today are simply a bit too trusting of products aimed at children. This thing isn't going to expose my children to predators; my kids aren't going to learn about gang rape from this game; this toy isn't going to record audio or video; etc. I don't necessarily think parents need to ban Roblox, because that means you can't teach children about how to keep themselves safe or what to do if they're not enjoying something happening online. But I do think parents need to be aware of what happens.
  - stevenicr 6y ago
    This is a great question - and something that I think people need to be more aware of. As another commenter pointed out - safe for children could be an issues where blackmail and extortion / sextortion could be an issue - for some parents, finding that on a PS3 while playing mine craft that another person created a giant penis on the screen would make that game 'unsafe'. (I had that happen some years ago - had not idea what to say) I've heard kids playing call of duty online that cussed and degraded people worse than some x-rated movies.. (and I've also played and heard a kid say 'gosh darn it, they got me'. anything with chat, anything with user generated content, can be abused to be 'unsafe' in some ways - determining what level of outrage one could encounter / and how uncomfortable one would be is a thing. editing to add: what some others in the thread have mentioned about kill / guns / cops / etc in some of the games are also a thing for some parents and 'safety' - some might not see any of that in some games / levels that people play in roblox and assume it's not a thing. I'd also mention some of my associates would have concern that some are based on things outside the game that may include certain levels of cross dress and other things. What is 'safety issue' for some may be a bonus issue for another - so yes, defining types of safety I think is important.
    - soulofmischief 6y ago
      I think the focus needs to be on preventing blackmail/extortion/cyber. I'm not worried about my daughter or son seeing a crudely constructed penis on the screen, I'm worried about someone sending them age-inappropriate or dangerous private messages. I was consuming sexually explicit content by age nine or ten, had my secret copy of Grand Theft Auto, etc. and at no point was I in any "danger" other than running against the Puritan sensibilities of my guardians. I remember thinking that the fact that my male Sims couldn't wear female clothes as unnecessarily restrictive, but looking back if my guardians had seen me playing a game as a male wearing a dress, they would have destroyed the game in front of me immediately. "Unsafe" is a considerably relative term.
      - sleazy_b 6y ago
        I think the point is that people have different ideas about what the focus needs to be on.
- indigodaddy 6y ago
  Good comment. We are very glad that Xbox/console has the chat and messaging (essentially Xbox has it disabled) controls. We only let our 8 year old daughter play Roblox on Xbox One for this reason.
- novok 6y ago
  Are the iPad versions in that 'console platform' category or PC category?
NortySpock 6y ago
I have found it safe for the kids on all platforms. There seemed to be a fair amount of censorship in the chat to protect kids from most of THOSE awkward conversations. That being said, some of the popular games are shooters, murder mysteries, that, while not gory, do have you shooting (lego-minifig-like) people. I would say watch some gameplay videos and see what you think.
nineplay 6y ago
My number one concern is predictors so I'll address that part. You can turn off "chat" with anyone other than your child's friends. You're kid can be in a group chat with their friend and other strangers, which I'm not delighted about. Downside #1 is that anyone can send a friend request and your child can accept them. Whenever I go into my kid's account I do a friend review - "How do you know this person?". My child also always has a dozen pending "friends" requests from as-far-as-I-know complete strangers which I decline for her. Downside #2 is that Roblox can have odd restrictions if "chat" is turned off - you can't give your pets names "Adopt Me" for example.
bentcorner 6y ago
It looks like there are parental controls: https://corp.roblox.com/faq/ https://corp.roblox.com/faq/ TBH I wished I looked this up a long time ago, by default if a child creates an account it doesn't put them through any kind of "get a parent" workflow. (Contrast with signing up for a child Xbox account or Google account).
cpuguy83 6y ago
Our autistic 11yr old could not handle it at all. Our other two (younger) kids loved it... past tense here because we had to cut it off for all because it was too emotionally traumatizing for the 11yr old, plus some of the content was questionable. You can turn off chat. The games can be... err... interesting. People shooting guns at each other and other such things. Just keep an eye on it. Remember the crap you saw/did on IRC as a kid.
Delphiza 6y ago
No. My daughter (now 12) played a lot of Roblox, and mostly it was fine. She seemed able to avoid the shadier parts and, as a parent, you trust the child-friendly features. However, controls are subverted (for example, by using special characters to get through language filters), and my daughter fell victim to exploitation that moved from Roblox innocence, to instagram, porn, and one-on-one calls. Fortunately we caught it (in time?). Police traced it back to international gangs that prey on the innocent. The trail, at least for us, went cold as there is a request to police in a country (we were not told which) by ours (UK), that is unlikely to be followed up. Roblox was a big thing for her, and the events that started there were traumatic for the whole family. Roblox is extremely popular and a really good platform. I'm not going to go on a crusade to try and chance peoples' minds, but Roblox is not as kid-friendly as one would think. It suffers, as all digital social platforms do, with uncontrollable, mis-understood, and untraceable actions by bad actors, that are used for nefarious purposes.
- jatsign 6y ago
  Thanks. My eldest daughter is 11 and that's exactly the stuff I worry about.
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    You can turn off all ability to chat & lock it behind a pin # you choose so they can't turn it back on.
- stevenicr 6y ago
  Sadly I believe these kinds of things happen and are increasing in frequency on all apps/games/sites that allow for user generated profiles / messaging. I have seen an increase in the use of these methods the last 5 -6 years or so especially. We had an influx of these types of social engineering / personal data collection with later demands of money or nude pics (and often times both) - some years ago. Looking into negative link attacks to disrupt google search results found some sites teaching people how to use chat systems for ill gotten gains - from selling fake pics to blackmail, begging for money for sickness - all sorts of things - posted right on public forums and with links to dozens of sites in which these methods could be used quickly. As to where I think there is less of this on fbook for some reasons - fbook is sometimes employed as part of the scams. long stories short - I think roblox is not necessarily more dangerous for teens than discord / snap / IG / etc. I've had several talks with kids about safety in using internet connected things - about how sending a pic can give up your location, and sharing articles from the news about sextortion and such. These got very detailed when questioned, and I don't think it should be a 'one time "the talk" either. Explaining how some simple social engineering can take two seemingly innocent data points and locate someone for kidnapping or whatever - like casually throwing in 'what school do you go to' - and 'parents aren't home till Xpm' can lead to bad things - and one might not notice those inquiries / data sharing while in the middle of game. technology evolves, the attack surfaces do too. I've had the opposite happen with similar results - a kid extorting adults, that led to international request for police help - even with data proving ip and the ISP coordinating data - no resolve - and that kid keeps coming back and ruining stuff for others thanks to wealthy parents and unlimited VPNs, very hard to block. In short I think roblox is no less safe than other portals aside from fbook. If 99% of [app/game] people are nice - and one percent are looking to leverage your honesty for ill gotten gains - the apps with the most people will yield extortion opportunities that are worth the time to exploit it seems. Especially from places where $20 goes a long way for some reason.
dagw 6y ago
(I have a 10 year old daughter) While nothing is completely 'safe', I feel that Roblox does a better job than just about any other platform I've looked at in making a safe and still social online environment for kids. The biggest problem is players trying to scam each other in in-game trades. The worst we've experience is that my daughter lost a pet worth about $5 in real money to a scammer. And while it was pretty traumatic for her it was also a very teachable moment that let us talk a lot about trusting strangers on the internet. We also regularly monitor what she does spend a lot of time talking about being safe on the internet.
- Taylor_OD 6y ago
  Being scammed is kind of a right of passage on the internet right? I lost my Neopets account to a scam and sadly still fell for a scam on Runescape years later. I learned from both experiences though.
runjake 6y ago
Roblox is not safe at all, no. You need to stay on top of their Roblox activities and who they communicate with. We had a similar experience to the other commenter.
ineedasername 6y ago
You can turn off all ability for the child to chat in games and lock those setting behind a Pin #. Then you don't have to worry about inappropriate messaging etc. After than, it's about as safe as an online world can be, which is to say there's assholes everywhere, and Roblox is no different. If you're playing a capture the flag game, it's possible to have another player grief you with spawn camping etc.

Roblox covers several different things which is why the messaging is mixed. Also, parents have varying attitudes to risk. The PC version is not safe for children. The console platform versions are safer for children because they have controls over messaging. The quality control of the games is minimal. Parents need to be aware that Roblox stuffs in-app payments everywhere and these can be excessive and in-your-face. My child played Roblox on Xbox One but never found it a particularly enjoyable experience.

jatsign 6y ago
Thanks. My kids would probably play it on their iPads (we don't even have a PC). Most of their iPad games offer in-app purchases already or force them to watch commercials. It's the messaging that concerns me most.
- Thlom 6y ago
  My kid play on her tablet or iPhone (mostly). I notice there is a chat window, but don't think she pays much attention to it. She and her friends use facetime for in-game communication.
da_big_ghey 6y ago
> The PC version is not safe for children. I'm curious what you mean by this. What makes something safe for children or not? (This is an honest question from someone who doesn't have children and so doesn't really know.) It's interesting that a game would be "safe" on one platform but not another.
- fullstop 6y ago
  It's much more difficult to chat with other players on Xbox.
- ffpip 6y ago
  Maybe spam messages, cuss words, obscene figures and stuff Games on PS4 are way safer. It's like a restricted platform. Comparing Rocket League's chat on PC and PS4 is enough to know the difference. While playing on your PC, you can quickly abuse/spam the other player because you have a keyboard to type on. Because PS4 only has a virtual keyboard, you don't have enough time to use the controller to type whatever you want. You have to use some preloaded custom messages like 'Nice Shot', 'Excellent Save!'
- stu2b50 6y ago
  Roblox isn't so much a "game" as a platform for making games. Think Gmod. As a result, the more "creative freedom" you have, the more the often teen+ aged developers do what people that age do with creative freedom.
- DanBC 6y ago
  Predators will attack anywhere that children gather. Children gather in Roblox, and predators targeted Roblox. The features that make something more or less safe are the controls put around preventing that from happening, minimising the risk, being very clear to parents about what's expected of them, having excellent moderation, and having excellent reporting. The PC version of roblox fails all of these somewhat. Many parents today are simply a bit too trusting of products aimed at children. This thing isn't going to expose my children to predators; my kids aren't going to learn about gang rape from this game; this toy isn't going to record audio or video; etc. I don't necessarily think parents need to ban Roblox, because that means you can't teach children about how to keep themselves safe or what to do if they're not enjoying something happening online. But I do think parents need to be aware of what happens.
- stevenicr 6y ago
  This is a great question - and something that I think people need to be more aware of. As another commenter pointed out - safe for children could be an issues where blackmail and extortion / sextortion could be an issue - for some parents, finding that on a PS3 while playing mine craft that another person created a giant penis on the screen would make that game 'unsafe'. (I had that happen some years ago - had not idea what to say) I've heard kids playing call of duty online that cussed and degraded people worse than some x-rated movies.. (and I've also played and heard a kid say 'gosh darn it, they got me'. anything with chat, anything with user generated content, can be abused to be 'unsafe' in some ways - determining what level of outrage one could encounter / and how uncomfortable one would be is a thing. editing to add: what some others in the thread have mentioned about kill / guns / cops / etc in some of the games are also a thing for some parents and 'safety' - some might not see any of that in some games / levels that people play in roblox and assume it's not a thing. I'd also mention some of my associates would have concern that some are based on things outside the game that may include certain levels of cross dress and other things. What is 'safety issue' for some may be a bonus issue for another - so yes, defining types of safety I think is important.
  - soulofmischief 6y ago
    I think the focus needs to be on preventing blackmail/extortion/cyber. I'm not worried about my daughter or son seeing a crudely constructed penis on the screen, I'm worried about someone sending them age-inappropriate or dangerous private messages. I was consuming sexually explicit content by age nine or ten, had my secret copy of Grand Theft Auto, etc. and at no point was I in any "danger" other than running against the Puritan sensibilities of my guardians. I remember thinking that the fact that my male Sims couldn't wear female clothes as unnecessarily restrictive, but looking back if my guardians had seen me playing a game as a male wearing a dress, they would have destroyed the game in front of me immediately. "Unsafe" is a considerably relative term.
    - sleazy_b 6y ago
      I think the point is that people have different ideas about what the focus needs to be on.
indigodaddy 6y ago
Good comment. We are very glad that Xbox/console has the chat and messaging (essentially Xbox has it disabled) controls. We only let our 8 year old daughter play Roblox on Xbox One for this reason.
novok 6y ago
Are the iPad versions in that 'console platform' category or PC category?

NortySpock 6y ago

I have found it safe for the kids on all platforms. There seemed to be a fair amount of censorship in the chat to protect kids from most of THOSE awkward conversations. That being said, some of the popular games are shooters, murder mysteries, that, while not gory, do have you shooting (lego-minifig-like) people. I would say watch some gameplay videos and see what you think.

nineplay 6y ago

My number one concern is predictors so I'll address that part. You can turn off "chat" with anyone other than your child's friends. You're kid can be in a group chat with their friend and other strangers, which I'm not delighted about. Downside #1 is that anyone can send a friend request and your child can accept them. Whenever I go into my kid's account I do a friend review - "How do you know this person?". My child also always has a dozen pending "friends" requests from as-far-as-I-know complete strangers which I decline for her. Downside #2 is that Roblox can have odd restrictions if "chat" is turned off - you can't give your pets names "Adopt Me" for example.

bentcorner 6y ago

It looks like there are parental controls: https://corp.roblox.com/faq/ https://corp.roblox.com/faq/ TBH I wished I looked this up a long time ago, by default if a child creates an account it doesn't put them through any kind of "get a parent" workflow. (Contrast with signing up for a child Xbox account or Google account).

cpuguy83 6y ago

Our autistic 11yr old could not handle it at all. Our other two (younger) kids loved it... past tense here because we had to cut it off for all because it was too emotionally traumatizing for the 11yr old, plus some of the content was questionable. You can turn off chat. The games can be... err... interesting. People shooting guns at each other and other such things. Just keep an eye on it. Remember the crap you saw/did on IRC as a kid.

Delphiza 6y ago

No. My daughter (now 12) played a lot of Roblox, and mostly it was fine. She seemed able to avoid the shadier parts and, as a parent, you trust the child-friendly features. However, controls are subverted (for example, by using special characters to get through language filters), and my daughter fell victim to exploitation that moved from Roblox innocence, to instagram, porn, and one-on-one calls. Fortunately we caught it (in time?). Police traced it back to international gangs that prey on the innocent. The trail, at least for us, went cold as there is a request to police in a country (we were not told which) by ours (UK), that is unlikely to be followed up. Roblox was a big thing for her, and the events that started there were traumatic for the whole family. Roblox is extremely popular and a really good platform. I'm not going to go on a crusade to try and chance peoples' minds, but Roblox is not as kid-friendly as one would think. It suffers, as all digital social platforms do, with uncontrollable, mis-understood, and untraceable actions by bad actors, that are used for nefarious purposes.

jatsign 6y ago
Thanks. My eldest daughter is 11 and that's exactly the stuff I worry about.
- ineedasername 6y ago
  You can turn off all ability to chat & lock it behind a pin # you choose so they can't turn it back on.
stevenicr 6y ago
Sadly I believe these kinds of things happen and are increasing in frequency on all apps/games/sites that allow for user generated profiles / messaging. I have seen an increase in the use of these methods the last 5 -6 years or so especially. We had an influx of these types of social engineering / personal data collection with later demands of money or nude pics (and often times both) - some years ago. Looking into negative link attacks to disrupt google search results found some sites teaching people how to use chat systems for ill gotten gains - from selling fake pics to blackmail, begging for money for sickness - all sorts of things - posted right on public forums and with links to dozens of sites in which these methods could be used quickly. As to where I think there is less of this on fbook for some reasons - fbook is sometimes employed as part of the scams. long stories short - I think roblox is not necessarily more dangerous for teens than discord / snap / IG / etc. I've had several talks with kids about safety in using internet connected things - about how sending a pic can give up your location, and sharing articles from the news about sextortion and such. These got very detailed when questioned, and I don't think it should be a 'one time "the talk" either. Explaining how some simple social engineering can take two seemingly innocent data points and locate someone for kidnapping or whatever - like casually throwing in 'what school do you go to' - and 'parents aren't home till Xpm' can lead to bad things - and one might not notice those inquiries / data sharing while in the middle of game. technology evolves, the attack surfaces do too. I've had the opposite happen with similar results - a kid extorting adults, that led to international request for police help - even with data proving ip and the ISP coordinating data - no resolve - and that kid keeps coming back and ruining stuff for others thanks to wealthy parents and unlimited VPNs, very hard to block. In short I think roblox is no less safe than other portals aside from fbook. If 99% of [app/game] people are nice - and one percent are looking to leverage your honesty for ill gotten gains - the apps with the most people will yield extortion opportunities that are worth the time to exploit it seems. Especially from places where $20 goes a long way for some reason.

dagw 6y ago

(I have a 10 year old daughter) While nothing is completely 'safe', I feel that Roblox does a better job than just about any other platform I've looked at in making a safe and still social online environment for kids. The biggest problem is players trying to scam each other in in-game trades. The worst we've experience is that my daughter lost a pet worth about $5 in real money to a scammer. And while it was pretty traumatic for her it was also a very teachable moment that let us talk a lot about trusting strangers on the internet. We also regularly monitor what she does spend a lot of time talking about being safe on the internet.

Taylor_OD 6y ago
Being scammed is kind of a right of passage on the internet right? I lost my Neopets account to a scam and sadly still fell for a scam on Runescape years later. I learned from both experiences though.

runjake 6y ago

Roblox is not safe at all, no. You need to stay on top of their Roblox activities and who they communicate with. We had a similar experience to the other commenter.

ineedasername 6y ago

You can turn off all ability for the child to chat in games and lock those setting behind a Pin #. Then you don't have to worry about inappropriate messaging etc. After than, it's about as safe as an online world can be, which is to say there's assholes everywhere, and Roblox is no different. If you're playing a capture the flag game, it's possible to have another player grief you with spawn camping etc.