5 ms·

Roblox CEO interview about child safety didn't go well

112 points by tobr 11mo ago

jackvalentine 11mo ago
> The CEO seems to believe that the scale of Roblox is somehow an excuse to justify its problems The entire tech industry in a nutshell.
- mattlondon 11mo ago
  I suspect what the CEO was trying to convey was that this was a "small problem" given the number of users etc, "no need to worry share holders and investors! Not a big deal!"... But I don't think that argument really works for paedophilia. Society does not want to allow it at any scale (zero-tolerance - and rightly so), so even if it is a "small" proportion of the entire platform, it's still bad especially if they're basically only paying lip service to any protections. This person didn't seem to really understand that though and was trying to spin it as some sort of "business is great! We're doing great! Look at all these users and engagement! Growth growth growth!" type typical hype bullshit, but totally misread the situation.
- vintagedave 11mo ago
  Yes, and it's not something many tech people want to acknowledge. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-work-for-an-evil-company-but-outside-work-im-actually-a-really-good-person https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-work-for-an-evil-compa...
- mschuster91 11mo ago
  Yup. When it comes to the "FO" part of "FAFO", there are two sweet spots... either you're so piss poor and destitute you can get away with literally robbing trains [1], or you're so large and rich that fines don't matter because it's just another line on the balance sheet. Why care for society at large when you have absolutely nothing to fear? [1] https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/auburn-gresham-residentfed-up-thieves-trespassing-through-property/ https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/auburn-gresham-resident...
ares623 11mo ago
That part about adding a prediction market into Roblox to let kids start betting is something out of a comedy skit. Unbelievable. I hope that gets used as court evidence at some point.
- defrost 11mo ago
  The effectively silent response of the CEO in respect to seriously tackling a pedophile problem was damning, it's an understandably difficult problem with bad optics. The fully open gleeful embrace of using Roblox to groom future gambling addicts as a path to future revenue streams is so far past damning it screams walking abyss of moral self awareness.
noitpmeder 11mo ago
To say nothing of the Roblox situation, anyone else having a hard time reading this piece of "reporting"? It reads, to me, as so obviously slanted and opinionated against Roblox from the outset. It's not trying to portray facts, it's clearly trying to make the reader interpret the situation in an anti-roblox light, instead of letting the reader arrive there on their own.
- crises-luff-6b 11mo ago
  [dead]
- vintagedave 11mo ago
  Not at all. It reads exactly the opposite: grounded concern, and then an absolute mess of an interview that provides solid reason to question their governance.
- actionfromafar 11mo ago
  It must be tiring though to keep the "neutral" approach for every article. How many benefits of doubts is Roblox owed, really? Asking for a more neutral tone is almost akin to asking for Hunter S Thompson to rewrite "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" in a more neutral tone.
  - noitpmeder 11mo ago
    Let the facts speak for themselves. I agree the interview sounds damning. However it reduces the quality of the article to introduce Roblox as a "pedophile hellscape" right off the bat, or tell me how it was so impressive how the interviewer "kept his cool" in response to the answers. It's honestly the same style of writing anytime Fox news reports on any democratic action, or vice versa for other rags. Except this has a nice dose of "think of the children" that further lets them pull on heartstrings. Again, fuck Roblox and their lack of an ability to improve on these issues, but this is just trash writing and editing.
    - DonHopkins 11mo ago
dijksterhuis 11mo ago
NYT interview link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/podcasts/hardfork-roblox-child-safety.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/podcasts/hardfork-roblox-...
vintagedave 11mo ago
I don't have children, but friends and family do, and I had always heard Roblox presented as kid-friendly and kid-safe. This meant I heard about someone's child playing Roblox and, thinking it was kindof an electronic construction set, ie a great learning and play tool,[0] I felt no concerns at all. To describe this interview as a 'car crash' is almost underselling it. I feel terrified. Most of all, what are my friends' and relatives' kids getting access to that they don't know about? [0] Wikipedia says, 'allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users.' That was the extent of my knowledge. It sounds great: very happy for kids to learn how to build things! Sure, I'd prefer they used Lego, but if they have to use mobiles then something where things are built and created is about as healthy as using mobile apps at a young age can be, right?
- actionfromafar 11mo ago
  Most of them don't build, but consume "content" from other people.
- tinco 11mo ago
  Easy way to know if Roblox is safe for children is to ask the following question: Is Roblox available on Nintendo? Nintendo would never turn away money, unless they feel it would damage their reputation as a company you can trust your children with. If they had believed Roblox was safe, they would have 100% taken that money.
  - swores 11mo ago
    It may be a good enough simple test, especially for huge titles like Roblox, but I’ve worked with game developers whose titles would have been allowed by Nintendo but who decided it wasn’t worth the investment to create a port to publish for Nintendo devices - lots of games don’t release on all possible platforms for business reasons.
    - tinco 11mo ago
      Yeah, it's obviously just a crude razor. What I meant is that if it's not on Nintendo, it's a sign you should be more diligent as a parent. Obviously you should always monitor and ideally play the games your kids play yourself, but I can imagine not all parents do that. The Nintendo test is a reasonable alternative, my mom did it in the 90s and I had enough fun games even if I missed out on a bunch of cool PC and Sony titles.
tobr 11mo ago
The interview in question https://youtu.be/XpIXRgMlPo4 https://youtu.be/XpIXRgMlPo4
binsquare 11mo ago
Here's the source of that interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpIXRgMlPo4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpIXRgMlPo4 The CEO was NOT prepared for the questions in this interview, quote: `I was hoping to come here and talk about fun stuff`. It's insightful how a genuine question about hindenburg's research into Roblox's decrease in safety immediately pushed the CEO to fury starting 23:29.
- ojosilva 11mo ago
  Around that time in the video what I see is a journalist that did not do his homework, as he crumbled under the CEO's snarky "do you know this research company went out of business?" - he should just started to read the report findings and ask if they are true [1] or popped out the 16 public arrests [2] tied to Roblox in the US of A. Both journalists were VERY agreeable and were like trying not to pick a fight. Want to talk about the fun stuff Mr CEO? There's no fun when so many kids are being systematically harassed by evil adults in the platform. [1] https://hindenburgresearch.com/roblox/ https://hindenburgresearch.com/roblox/ [2] https://thebearcave.substack.com/p/problems-at-roblox-rblx-4 https://thebearcave.substack.com/p/problems-at-roblox-rblx-4
- sitkack 11mo ago
  The entire leadership team of Roblox is unserious. Consistent amateur hour behavior out of them.
olalonde 11mo ago
Reminds me https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BC7wZczw0LY https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BC7wZczw0LY. I still can't tell if it's real or staged.
tomaytotomato 11mo ago
Reminds me of this scene in Silicon Valley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjtr64ZQUWA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjtr64ZQUWA I've not got kids yet, but I do wonder if the best way to prepare them for the internet is by teaching them the many dangers by navigating it with them (scams, grooming, bullying, hacking)?
- Ancapistani 11mo ago
  I can’t watch your link right now, but what you describe is exactly how I approach it.
weird-eye-issue 11mo ago
"Car-Crash Interview" is such a weird term I was literally expecting him to be in an interview while driving or something and get into a car crash...
- adi_kurian 11mo ago
  Think common British English. It did not read weird to me. The Title Casing Was a Car-Crash Though.
- unnamed76ri 11mo ago
  Same. I thought he had caused a car crash and took as an opportunity to promote Roblox.
  - DonHopkins 11mo ago
    Or maybe he was demonstrating a Roblox drunk driving game where you pick up underage hitchhikers on the way to the casino sex palace?
- mhast 11mo ago
  That would probably be preferable from a PR standpoint.
- meheleventyone 11mo ago
  The original car crash interview: https://youtu.be/7Qir4EEpawE https://youtu.be/7Qir4EEpawE
danielvaughn 11mo ago
A couple of comments: 1. I really wish Dreams had kept going, expanded beyond PlayStation, and tried to take the market from Roblox. They were infinitely more safety-minded with their content. It would be great to see a Roblox competitor. 2. Kotaku on mobile is a horrid experience. There’s like 20% of the screen allocated to content, the rest are ads. My god.
croes 11mo ago
So what measure beside total surveillance would work? Face ID? Once or multiple times without prior notice? The former can easily circumvented by letting a child create the account and taking it over after Facebook ID. Wasn’t the UK system the one that could be fooled by a video game?
- actionfromafar 11mo ago
  IMHO the solution is human moderators. (Or AI bots when they got good, but they aint yet.) Too expensive? Too bad, Roblox. Worlds tiniest violin is playing for you.
- tclancy 11mo ago
  Rethinking the problem? Engaging with the questions like a human being and not a snake oil salesman? Falling back on the Scunthorpe Problem and how easy it is for people to move chat to another platform comes across as not actually concerned at all. You could just make up stuff on the spot and sound more reassuring and human. For example: “one thing we track is users who predominantly engage in chat, which is common enough, but we then filter for people constantly contacting new strangers and then focus on the kinds of conversations”, blah blah blah. Once he gets to the high five stuff, it’s clear the person is a twelve year old themself. Skibidi toilet.
sitkack 11mo ago
The article doesn't even directly mention Schlep https://www.youtube.com/@RealSchlep/videos https://www.youtube.com/@RealSchlep/videos whom Roblox kicked off the platform for catching pedophiles. Roblox Is Threatening to Sue Me For Protecting Kids (Schlep) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqAw_NjHK8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqAw_NjHK8 Roblox, Take a Seat (ft: Chris Hansen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcVPPOB8TQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcVPPOB8TQ #freeschlep It was awesome seeing the kids on Roblox revolt against Baszucki for doubling down on supporting pedophiles. The leadership team at Roblox is so entirely tone deaf, if I were the the board, I'd remove them all. I watched Baszucki and This is in addition to the money laundering and dystopian hellscape that is the whole game publishing platform that has been documented here on hn. Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAaY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAaY My own child says that no parent should allow their child on Roblox. Smart kid.
rubyfan 11mo ago
When I was a kid, I loved BBSs and the technicality of building a computer and the wild west that was the internet. Now that I have kids of my own, I won’t let them go near some of this stuff. It’s not because I’m worried they will do something dumb on their own but because I think tech has become predatory of all users and society in general.
- lll-o-lll 11mo ago
  The BBS scene was much more accountable. I mean, I met some weird dudes on there and consumed some weird stuff, but at the end of the day it was a local community, and everything was traced back to real people. I tried to sign up as “Roger Rabbit”, who was 21, and therefore gain some access to a particular mov that was popular at the time. It was then that I learned two things: - The sysop can talk to you directly! - The sysop can see your phone number and knows Roger is that kid that signed up ages ago… Met the sysop in real life some years later and he had thought the whole thing was pretty funny. The point is that this was a local community; and the internet just doesn’t work like that.
teekert 11mo ago
It bizarre only from our world. This CEO gives a nice insight into his day to day. He lives in a completely different world. This pedo stuff has nothing to do with his priorities. So how do we make it his priority?
ohm 11mo ago
As a parent I can’t stand Roblox. A while back Bedwars game on it was all the kids would talk about, then it was Grow a garden, now the worst of them all, Steal a brainrot. Friends turn on friends and steal their items. Lots of crying and yelling. My child starts having tantrum if they can’t play. A friend’s child started hitting them with fists because they weren’t allowed to play. The problem is that all the kids play this game and it’s their form of communication so I don’t want to completely ban it. Right now I block it on the router during the week and only allow it on weekends or when friends come over. My other complaint is the currency they use, Robux. After 10, all kids want for their birthday is that. Some kids spend it on the stupidest things. When they run out of currency they go into a game called please donate and beg for more money. They also trade rare items for currency and some make items and sell them in the store to make money. If the kid is banned by parents they find creative ways to play, they hide the app from Home Screen and play when studying, or wake up really early to play on their device, they play on school laptop using websites that run android emularors, etc. I guess I’ll mention something positive as well. One child I know actually enjoys building their own games and publishing them. It rare thought and I haven’t seen many kids do that. They usually load up Roblox studio, play around with it for a bit and never ouch it again. I miss the days of creative fun with Minecraft and wish the kids would have played that instead of Roblox.
HardwareLust 11mo ago
Why is this flagged?
- rsynnott 11mo ago
  Mustn’t be mean about the poor innocent megacorps on this here orange website.
- GeoAtreides 11mo ago
  To protect the capita... I mean, the delicate HN readers from the horrors of... I'm not sure what horrors are they protected against, but by God they will be protected, willingly or not
jswelker 11mo ago
The answer IMO is to have a whitelist mentality toward online safety rather than a blacklist. Parenting is essentially a form of mega censorship. So much that censoring is the default state of the child's interaction with the world, and a parent chooses to selectively and gradually uncensored certain things. The open web is antithetical to raising children because it is, well, open. Before the Internet, there was no way for a child to interface with the entire world. It was a few tv channels, books at a library, kids in the neighborhood, and within these "platforms" it is quite easy for a parent to "blacklist" unwanted "content", e.g. "Don't hang out with Billy because he smokes pot, and if I see you with him, you're grounded." The unpopular opinion but correct approach for kids on the Internet is to have everything blocked until explicitly approved--by the parent preferably, not by some curation algorithms a la YouTube Kids etc. In terms of Roblox: - mandatory age verification for any platform that is deemed to target children - mandatory parental account for any child - a parent account must whitelist all the individual games the child plays on Roblox - communication transcripts saved for parents to view - comms off by default for children Source: parent of 3 kids dealing with this on a daily basis and seeing the obvious trainwrecks that occur when kids are left with free access.
tasuki 11mo ago
> The only thing that stopped this tantrum was allowing the CEO to talk about Polymarket, a cryptoscam-based prediction market, letting people place bets on things as ridiculous as awards ceremonies and future weather patterns. I'm a fan of prediction markets. This makes me think the article is rather biased.
- klooney 11mo ago
  Kotaku and their parent company are in the dogmatic "silicon valley bad " camp. Not to defend Roblox or Polymarket, but if they were doing a pretty good job, I would expect the presentation to be the same.

112 points by tobr 11mo ago

> The CEO seems to believe that the scale of Roblox is somehow an excuse to justify its problems The entire tech industry in a nutshell.

mattlondon 11mo ago
I suspect what the CEO was trying to convey was that this was a "small problem" given the number of users etc, "no need to worry share holders and investors! Not a big deal!"... But I don't think that argument really works for paedophilia. Society does not want to allow it at any scale (zero-tolerance - and rightly so), so even if it is a "small" proportion of the entire platform, it's still bad especially if they're basically only paying lip service to any protections. This person didn't seem to really understand that though and was trying to spin it as some sort of "business is great! We're doing great! Look at all these users and engagement! Growth growth growth!" type typical hype bullshit, but totally misread the situation.
vintagedave 11mo ago
Yes, and it's not something many tech people want to acknowledge. https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-work-for-an-evil-company-but-outside-work-im-actually-a-really-good-person https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-work-for-an-evil-compa...
mschuster91 11mo ago
Yup. When it comes to the "FO" part of "FAFO", there are two sweet spots... either you're so piss poor and destitute you can get away with literally robbing trains [1], or you're so large and rich that fines don't matter because it's just another line on the balance sheet. Why care for society at large when you have absolutely nothing to fear? [1] https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/auburn-gresham-residentfed-up-thieves-trespassing-through-property/ https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/auburn-gresham-resident...

ares623 11mo ago

That part about adding a prediction market into Roblox to let kids start betting is something out of a comedy skit. Unbelievable. I hope that gets used as court evidence at some point.

defrost 11mo ago
The effectively silent response of the CEO in respect to seriously tackling a pedophile problem was damning, it's an understandably difficult problem with bad optics. The fully open gleeful embrace of using Roblox to groom future gambling addicts as a path to future revenue streams is so far past damning it screams walking abyss of moral self awareness.

noitpmeder 11mo ago

To say nothing of the Roblox situation, anyone else having a hard time reading this piece of "reporting"? It reads, to me, as so obviously slanted and opinionated against Roblox from the outset. It's not trying to portray facts, it's clearly trying to make the reader interpret the situation in an anti-roblox light, instead of letting the reader arrive there on their own.

crises-luff-6b 11mo ago
[dead]
vintagedave 11mo ago
Not at all. It reads exactly the opposite: grounded concern, and then an absolute mess of an interview that provides solid reason to question their governance.
actionfromafar 11mo ago
It must be tiring though to keep the "neutral" approach for every article. How many benefits of doubts is Roblox owed, really? Asking for a more neutral tone is almost akin to asking for Hunter S Thompson to rewrite "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" in a more neutral tone.
- noitpmeder 11mo ago
  Let the facts speak for themselves. I agree the interview sounds damning. However it reduces the quality of the article to introduce Roblox as a "pedophile hellscape" right off the bat, or tell me how it was so impressive how the interviewer "kept his cool" in response to the answers. It's honestly the same style of writing anytime Fox news reports on any democratic action, or vice versa for other rags. Except this has a nice dose of "think of the children" that further lets them pull on heartstrings. Again, fuck Roblox and their lack of an ability to improve on these issues, but this is just trash writing and editing.
  - DonHopkins 11mo ago

dijksterhuis 11mo ago

NYT interview link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/podcasts/hardfork-roblox-child-safety.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/podcasts/hardfork-roblox-...

vintagedave 11mo ago

I don't have children, but friends and family do, and I had always heard Roblox presented as kid-friendly and kid-safe. This meant I heard about someone's child playing Roblox and, thinking it was kindof an electronic construction set, ie a great learning and play tool,[0] I felt no concerns at all. To describe this interview as a 'car crash' is almost underselling it. I feel terrified. Most of all, what are my friends' and relatives' kids getting access to that they don't know about? [0] Wikipedia says, 'allows users to program and play games created by themselves or other users.' That was the extent of my knowledge. It sounds great: very happy for kids to learn how to build things! Sure, I'd prefer they used Lego, but if they have to use mobiles then something where things are built and created is about as healthy as using mobile apps at a young age can be, right?

actionfromafar 11mo ago
Most of them don't build, but consume "content" from other people.
tinco 11mo ago
Easy way to know if Roblox is safe for children is to ask the following question: Is Roblox available on Nintendo? Nintendo would never turn away money, unless they feel it would damage their reputation as a company you can trust your children with. If they had believed Roblox was safe, they would have 100% taken that money.
- swores 11mo ago
  It may be a good enough simple test, especially for huge titles like Roblox, but I’ve worked with game developers whose titles would have been allowed by Nintendo but who decided it wasn’t worth the investment to create a port to publish for Nintendo devices - lots of games don’t release on all possible platforms for business reasons.
  - tinco 11mo ago
    Yeah, it's obviously just a crude razor. What I meant is that if it's not on Nintendo, it's a sign you should be more diligent as a parent. Obviously you should always monitor and ideally play the games your kids play yourself, but I can imagine not all parents do that. The Nintendo test is a reasonable alternative, my mom did it in the 90s and I had enough fun games even if I missed out on a bunch of cool PC and Sony titles.

tobr 11mo ago

The interview in question https://youtu.be/XpIXRgMlPo4 https://youtu.be/XpIXRgMlPo4

binsquare 11mo ago

Here's the source of that interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpIXRgMlPo4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpIXRgMlPo4 The CEO was NOT prepared for the questions in this interview, quote: `I was hoping to come here and talk about fun stuff`. It's insightful how a genuine question about hindenburg's research into Roblox's decrease in safety immediately pushed the CEO to fury starting 23:29.

ojosilva 11mo ago
Around that time in the video what I see is a journalist that did not do his homework, as he crumbled under the CEO's snarky "do you know this research company went out of business?" - he should just started to read the report findings and ask if they are true [1] or popped out the 16 public arrests [2] tied to Roblox in the US of A. Both journalists were VERY agreeable and were like trying not to pick a fight. Want to talk about the fun stuff Mr CEO? There's no fun when so many kids are being systematically harassed by evil adults in the platform. [1] https://hindenburgresearch.com/roblox/ https://hindenburgresearch.com/roblox/ [2] https://thebearcave.substack.com/p/problems-at-roblox-rblx-4 https://thebearcave.substack.com/p/problems-at-roblox-rblx-4
sitkack 11mo ago
The entire leadership team of Roblox is unserious. Consistent amateur hour behavior out of them.

olalonde 11mo ago

Reminds me https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BC7wZczw0LY https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BC7wZczw0LY. I still can't tell if it's real or staged.

tomaytotomato 11mo ago

Reminds me of this scene in Silicon Valley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjtr64ZQUWA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjtr64ZQUWA I've not got kids yet, but I do wonder if the best way to prepare them for the internet is by teaching them the many dangers by navigating it with them (scams, grooming, bullying, hacking)?

Ancapistani 11mo ago
I can’t watch your link right now, but what you describe is exactly how I approach it.

weird-eye-issue 11mo ago

"Car-Crash Interview" is such a weird term I was literally expecting him to be in an interview while driving or something and get into a car crash...

adi_kurian 11mo ago
Think common British English. It did not read weird to me. The Title Casing Was a Car-Crash Though.
unnamed76ri 11mo ago
Same. I thought he had caused a car crash and took as an opportunity to promote Roblox.
- DonHopkins 11mo ago
  Or maybe he was demonstrating a Roblox drunk driving game where you pick up underage hitchhikers on the way to the casino sex palace?
mhast 11mo ago
That would probably be preferable from a PR standpoint.
meheleventyone 11mo ago
The original car crash interview: https://youtu.be/7Qir4EEpawE https://youtu.be/7Qir4EEpawE

danielvaughn 11mo ago

A couple of comments: 1. I really wish Dreams had kept going, expanded beyond PlayStation, and tried to take the market from Roblox. They were infinitely more safety-minded with their content. It would be great to see a Roblox competitor. 2. Kotaku on mobile is a horrid experience. There’s like 20% of the screen allocated to content, the rest are ads. My god.

croes 11mo ago

So what measure beside total surveillance would work? Face ID? Once or multiple times without prior notice? The former can easily circumvented by letting a child create the account and taking it over after Facebook ID. Wasn’t the UK system the one that could be fooled by a video game?

actionfromafar 11mo ago
IMHO the solution is human moderators. (Or AI bots when they got good, but they aint yet.) Too expensive? Too bad, Roblox. Worlds tiniest violin is playing for you.
tclancy 11mo ago
Rethinking the problem? Engaging with the questions like a human being and not a snake oil salesman? Falling back on the Scunthorpe Problem and how easy it is for people to move chat to another platform comes across as not actually concerned at all. You could just make up stuff on the spot and sound more reassuring and human. For example: “one thing we track is users who predominantly engage in chat, which is common enough, but we then filter for people constantly contacting new strangers and then focus on the kinds of conversations”, blah blah blah. Once he gets to the high five stuff, it’s clear the person is a twelve year old themself. Skibidi toilet.

sitkack 11mo ago

The article doesn't even directly mention Schlep https://www.youtube.com/@RealSchlep/videos https://www.youtube.com/@RealSchlep/videos whom Roblox kicked off the platform for catching pedophiles. Roblox Is Threatening to Sue Me For Protecting Kids (Schlep) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqAw_NjHK8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqAw_NjHK8 Roblox, Take a Seat (ft: Chris Hansen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcVPPOB8TQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIcVPPOB8TQ #freeschlep It was awesome seeing the kids on Roblox revolt against Baszucki for doubling down on supporting pedophiles. The leadership team at Roblox is so entirely tone deaf, if I were the the board, I'd remove them all. I watched Baszucki and This is in addition to the money laundering and dystopian hellscape that is the whole game publishing platform that has been documented here on hn. Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAaY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAaY My own child says that no parent should allow their child on Roblox. Smart kid.

rubyfan 11mo ago

When I was a kid, I loved BBSs and the technicality of building a computer and the wild west that was the internet. Now that I have kids of my own, I won’t let them go near some of this stuff. It’s not because I’m worried they will do something dumb on their own but because I think tech has become predatory of all users and society in general.

lll-o-lll 11mo ago
The BBS scene was much more accountable. I mean, I met some weird dudes on there and consumed some weird stuff, but at the end of the day it was a local community, and everything was traced back to real people. I tried to sign up as “Roger Rabbit”, who was 21, and therefore gain some access to a particular mov that was popular at the time. It was then that I learned two things: - The sysop can talk to you directly! - The sysop can see your phone number and knows Roger is that kid that signed up ages ago… Met the sysop in real life some years later and he had thought the whole thing was pretty funny. The point is that this was a local community; and the internet just doesn’t work like that.

teekert 11mo ago

It bizarre only from our world. This CEO gives a nice insight into his day to day. He lives in a completely different world. This pedo stuff has nothing to do with his priorities. So how do we make it his priority?

ohm 11mo ago

As a parent I can’t stand Roblox. A while back Bedwars game on it was all the kids would talk about, then it was Grow a garden, now the worst of them all, Steal a brainrot. Friends turn on friends and steal their items. Lots of crying and yelling. My child starts having tantrum if they can’t play. A friend’s child started hitting them with fists because they weren’t allowed to play. The problem is that all the kids play this game and it’s their form of communication so I don’t want to completely ban it. Right now I block it on the router during the week and only allow it on weekends or when friends come over. My other complaint is the currency they use, Robux. After 10, all kids want for their birthday is that. Some kids spend it on the stupidest things. When they run out of currency they go into a game called please donate and beg for more money. They also trade rare items for currency and some make items and sell them in the store to make money. If the kid is banned by parents they find creative ways to play, they hide the app from Home Screen and play when studying, or wake up really early to play on their device, they play on school laptop using websites that run android emularors, etc. I guess I’ll mention something positive as well. One child I know actually enjoys building their own games and publishing them. It rare thought and I haven’t seen many kids do that. They usually load up Roblox studio, play around with it for a bit and never ouch it again. I miss the days of creative fun with Minecraft and wish the kids would have played that instead of Roblox.

HardwareLust 11mo ago

Why is this flagged?

rsynnott 11mo ago
Mustn’t be mean about the poor innocent megacorps on this here orange website.
GeoAtreides 11mo ago
To protect the capita... I mean, the delicate HN readers from the horrors of... I'm not sure what horrors are they protected against, but by God they will be protected, willingly or not

jswelker 11mo ago

The answer IMO is to have a whitelist mentality toward online safety rather than a blacklist. Parenting is essentially a form of mega censorship. So much that censoring is the default state of the child's interaction with the world, and a parent chooses to selectively and gradually uncensored certain things. The open web is antithetical to raising children because it is, well, open. Before the Internet, there was no way for a child to interface with the entire world. It was a few tv channels, books at a library, kids in the neighborhood, and within these "platforms" it is quite easy for a parent to "blacklist" unwanted "content", e.g. "Don't hang out with Billy because he smokes pot, and if I see you with him, you're grounded." The unpopular opinion but correct approach for kids on the Internet is to have everything blocked until explicitly approved--by the parent preferably, not by some curation algorithms a la YouTube Kids etc. In terms of Roblox: - mandatory age verification for any platform that is deemed to target children - mandatory parental account for any child - a parent account must whitelist all the individual games the child plays on Roblox - communication transcripts saved for parents to view - comms off by default for children Source: parent of 3 kids dealing with this on a daily basis and seeing the obvious trainwrecks that occur when kids are left with free access.

tasuki 11mo ago

> The only thing that stopped this tantrum was allowing the CEO to talk about Polymarket, a cryptoscam-based prediction market, letting people place bets on things as ridiculous as awards ceremonies and future weather patterns. I'm a fan of prediction markets. This makes me think the article is rather biased.

klooney 11mo ago
Kotaku and their parent company are in the dogmatic "silicon valley bad " camp. Not to defend Roblox or Polymarket, but if they were doing a pretty good job, I would expect the presentation to be the same.