4 ms·

Buried in the article is the fact that the girl in question was screwed over by her collaborators, not by Roblox. Seems like the Roblox organization had nothing

by gipp 5y ago

Buried in the article is the fact that the girl in question was screwed over by her collaborators, not by Roblox. Seems like the Roblox organization had nothing to do with it, in fact, and behaved reasonably the entire time. What's with the headline?

gorjusborg 5y ago
The 'People Make Games' videos discuss this: https://youtu.be/vTMF6xEiAaY?t=282 https://youtu.be/vTMF6xEiAaY?t=282 Essentially, Roblox has made the decision that they are only responsible for interactions that happen on their platform. Parents may be letting their children develop games thinking that it's a cute hobby. Roblox knows that there are game companies wooing child devs and doing shady stuff that can be potentially harmful to them. They are not doing anything to stop the practices because they aren't technically on their platform. But the whole interaction is around making games for their platform. So they may potentially not be legally be at fault, but it does seem that they are making a lot of money, albeit indirectly, from turning a blind eye to companies extracting labor from young people, and in some cases abusing them. As a parent who is a developer and has kids who love Roblox, I think it's important that the situation be discussed and not swept under the rug. I like the idea of being able to develop and extend and open world like Roblox. I also think that when you market to kids, you have to meet a higher bar of responsibility in protecting them.
- adubaiconcon 5y ago
  If people choose to communicate completely off platforms, how do you expect Roblox to be responsible? Even if screenshot is provided as evidence, how do you expect Roblox to check if it's real? In the meanwhile, users can just use Guilded as a communication tool. It's not like there is no alternative. What do you think they acquire Guilded for?
  - gorjusborg 5y ago
    It's not just about communication. These groups are being formed to take advantage of the incentives that Roblox has put in place. They control the incentives. If groups are doing things that will harm people or give the community bad PR, they should change the incentives and/or punish those behaviors. The onus is on Roblox to make sure their name is not synonymous with child developer sweatshop.

by gipp 5y ago

gorjusborg 5y ago

The 'People Make Games' videos discuss this: https://youtu.be/vTMF6xEiAaY?t=282 https://youtu.be/vTMF6xEiAaY?t=282 Essentially, Roblox has made the decision that they are only responsible for interactions that happen on their platform. Parents may be letting their children develop games thinking that it's a cute hobby. Roblox knows that there are game companies wooing child devs and doing shady stuff that can be potentially harmful to them. They are not doing anything to stop the practices because they aren't technically on their platform. But the whole interaction is around making games for their platform. So they may potentially not be legally be at fault, but it does seem that they are making a lot of money, albeit indirectly, from turning a blind eye to companies extracting labor from young people, and in some cases abusing them. As a parent who is a developer and has kids who love Roblox, I think it's important that the situation be discussed and not swept under the rug. I like the idea of being able to develop and extend and open world like Roblox. I also think that when you market to kids, you have to meet a higher bar of responsibility in protecting them.

adubaiconcon 5y ago
If people choose to communicate completely off platforms, how do you expect Roblox to be responsible? Even if screenshot is provided as evidence, how do you expect Roblox to check if it's real? In the meanwhile, users can just use Guilded as a communication tool. It's not like there is no alternative. What do you think they acquire Guilded for?
- gorjusborg 5y ago
  It's not just about communication. These groups are being formed to take advantage of the incentives that Roblox has put in place. They control the incentives. If groups are doing things that will harm people or give the community bad PR, they should change the incentives and/or punish those behaviors. The onus is on Roblox to make sure their name is not synonymous with child developer sweatshop.