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I refuse to let my kids play Roblox. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy ...". That place is full of kids scamming each other, and I'

I refuse to let my kids play Roblox. "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy ...". That place is full of kids scamming each other, and I've not heard many good things about the company either. I was once trying to tell my child about this in a public setting, and a nearby older kid was just smirking knowingly about all the things I was talking about. Gambling, theft, foul language. Frankly, it almost seems like a good playground for older kids to learn some cheap life lessons from, but I'm not sure what age one can partake of some of these things without it warping your personality.

tboyd47 2y ago
It always seemed like a gateway drug to gambling to me.
- nomel 2y ago
  I've made a couple games with my kids, and these types of comments are very confusing to me. Roblox is a storefront for user made games. There's no single experience. Is this in reference to the "loot box" style mechanics that some games use?
  - tboyd47 2y ago
    It's in reference to the need to spend money and buy things in the game to enjoy the game. Roblox isn't unique in that way, but it's still strange to me.
lyk2005 2y ago
How do you partake in the real world without it warping your personality? Being scammed of your virtual items is not that different to being scammed of real money once you are an adult. Growing up with multiplayer games, Roblox can be categorized as an immersive sim with a virtual adult world inside of it that can teach kids a great deal about life. I myself got interested in money from Runescape, where I was scammed and scammed others. Since you brought an example I have my own, I ended a friendship over Runescape because I trusted my friend and he stole all my items. I cried for a week but then I moved on and learned to identify bad actors. You choose to shelter your kid, and that's okay because you are the parent.
- autoexec 2y ago
  > How do you partake in the real world without it warping your personality? You can't, but what you can do is try to understand where your cognitive biases are, learn the ways advertisers manipulate you and accept that knowing about those techniques do not make them ineffective, actively search for ways you've already been manipulated by advertising, work to develop your critical thinking skills, and above all understand that your children have zero defenses against advertising and that they are specifically and aggressively targeted by advertisers for that reason. Children should be protected from as much advertising as humanly possible for as long as humanly possible and you should start teaching them about the fact that they are being lied to and manipulated by advertising as soon as possible and help them to develop some of the skills that might help them, however much of that will be literally impossible for them until their minds are more developed. You child can recognize and form preferences for brands long before they learn to identify ads when they see them. Even teenagers are terrible at it. https://www.marketingdive.com/news/study-82-of-middle-school-kids-cant-distinguish-ads-from-actual-news/430934/ https://www.marketingdive.com/news/study-82-of-middle-school...
- milesvp 2y ago
  I mean, the logical extreme is to let them hang out in an opium den... I'm pretty sure that will likely have some pretty extreme psychological repercussions. I can tell you from personal experience, letting a young child watch some graphic movies can cause enough damage to probably need therapy. Knowing what experiences is age appropriate is a very important job for a parent, and each child is very different. And for the record, I tend to feel we over shelter our children as a society. But you are very correct with your experience with Runescape, I can only guess at the age you got into it. I certainly would have loved the game in my mid teens, and it would have been a good playground. I'll likely be keeping an eye out for similar playgrounds as my kids get older. I do want them to have some of the villainy experience in settings where the consequences are small to none. Do it too young, that is where the warping tends to happen.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
nineplay 2y ago
We use Roblox for family game night. It might not be as bad as you think. I think its a cool platform for burgeoning game developers. Anyone can publish a game, we put together a little obby just for the fun of it. We're back to the days where a couple of creative, motivated people can make a fun game, share it with people, and possibly make a pile of money.
- autoexec 2y ago
  We don't need roblox for that and never have needed them for that.
  - nineplay 2y ago
    We don't _need_ anything for family game night but Roblox won out of all the choices. Take a chance sometime and play 'epic mini games'. It's like a mini-arcade where we can all play together.

tboyd47 2y ago

It always seemed like a gateway drug to gambling to me.

nomel 2y ago
I've made a couple games with my kids, and these types of comments are very confusing to me. Roblox is a storefront for user made games. There's no single experience. Is this in reference to the "loot box" style mechanics that some games use?
- tboyd47 2y ago
  It's in reference to the need to spend money and buy things in the game to enjoy the game. Roblox isn't unique in that way, but it's still strange to me.

lyk2005 2y ago

How do you partake in the real world without it warping your personality? Being scammed of your virtual items is not that different to being scammed of real money once you are an adult. Growing up with multiplayer games, Roblox can be categorized as an immersive sim with a virtual adult world inside of it that can teach kids a great deal about life. I myself got interested in money from Runescape, where I was scammed and scammed others. Since you brought an example I have my own, I ended a friendship over Runescape because I trusted my friend and he stole all my items. I cried for a week but then I moved on and learned to identify bad actors. You choose to shelter your kid, and that's okay because you are the parent.

autoexec 2y ago
> How do you partake in the real world without it warping your personality? You can't, but what you can do is try to understand where your cognitive biases are, learn the ways advertisers manipulate you and accept that knowing about those techniques do not make them ineffective, actively search for ways you've already been manipulated by advertising, work to develop your critical thinking skills, and above all understand that your children have zero defenses against advertising and that they are specifically and aggressively targeted by advertisers for that reason. Children should be protected from as much advertising as humanly possible for as long as humanly possible and you should start teaching them about the fact that they are being lied to and manipulated by advertising as soon as possible and help them to develop some of the skills that might help them, however much of that will be literally impossible for them until their minds are more developed. You child can recognize and form preferences for brands long before they learn to identify ads when they see them. Even teenagers are terrible at it. https://www.marketingdive.com/news/study-82-of-middle-school-kids-cant-distinguish-ads-from-actual-news/430934/ https://www.marketingdive.com/news/study-82-of-middle-school...
milesvp 2y ago
I mean, the logical extreme is to let them hang out in an opium den... I'm pretty sure that will likely have some pretty extreme psychological repercussions. I can tell you from personal experience, letting a young child watch some graphic movies can cause enough damage to probably need therapy. Knowing what experiences is age appropriate is a very important job for a parent, and each child is very different. And for the record, I tend to feel we over shelter our children as a society. But you are very correct with your experience with Runescape, I can only guess at the age you got into it. I certainly would have loved the game in my mid teens, and it would have been a good playground. I'll likely be keeping an eye out for similar playgrounds as my kids get older. I do want them to have some of the villainy experience in settings where the consequences are small to none. Do it too young, that is where the warping tends to happen.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

nineplay 2y ago

We use Roblox for family game night. It might not be as bad as you think. I think its a cool platform for burgeoning game developers. Anyone can publish a game, we put together a little obby just for the fun of it. We're back to the days where a couple of creative, motivated people can make a fun game, share it with people, and possibly make a pile of money.

autoexec 2y ago
We don't need roblox for that and never have needed them for that.
- nineplay 2y ago
  We don't _need_ anything for family game night but Roblox won out of all the choices. Take a chance sometime and play 'epic mini games'. It's like a mini-arcade where we can all play together.