Roblox has been the video game phenomenon for the past two years, becoming the world’s largest self-developed game platform. It allows users to design and create their own games that anyone else can play. There are over 40 million of them to choose from and these can range from adopting a virtual pet or living in a fantasy castle, to multiplayer shooter challenges and obstacle courses.
Now, however, it seems that the theme is changing. Roblox, which is rated suitable for children ages 7 and up, has started hosting games with rooms where avatars can take off their clothes and simulate sex while others watch, strip parties and bondage. The company is surprised.
It was not what it seemed. The rooms, uncovered in a BBC investigation, included a strip club, avatars dressed in Nazi uniforms and a naked man “wearing only a dog collar and leash being led across the floor by a woman in a bondage outfit.” . These Roblox sex games are commonly known on the platform as “condos.” They are spaces, generated by users, where people can talk about sex and where their avatars can have virtual relationships. Here, Roblox rules do not exist.
Roblox’s answer. The numbers aren’t precise, but in 2020 Roblox reported that two-thirds of all American kids between the ages of nine and 12 use the game. And, yes, they accept that you have a problem: “We know that there is an extremely small subset of users who are deliberately trying to break the rules.” But the company stresses that a child is highly unlikely to stumble upon these rooms unless actively searching for them.
They also state that these games are typically only online for an hour before they are discovered and removed by moderators: “We conduct a security review of every image, video, and audio file uploaded to Roblox, using a combination of of human and machine detection. But some explicit content slips through the network. It’s a “cat-and-mouse” problem, explained Larry Magid, president of ConnectSafely, an organization that raises awareness of children’s online safety.
Other cases. As we discussed at Magnet in this other article. In 2019, a Twitter user named @lululemew started sharing neo-Nazi references on Roblox. “My son plays Roblox,” she wrote in an attempt to alert the company. “Did you know he has members on his site promoting #WhitePowerExtremist #DomesticTerrorism groups?”
hi @Roblox —🚨
My kid plays Roblox.
Did you know you have members on your site promoting #WhitePowerExtremist #DomesticTerrorism groups?ATOMWAFFEN is responsible for 5 deaths over the last few years & is one of the most violent #WhiteSupremacistTerrorist groups in the US. pic.twitter.com/gXKicxcYWr
— ʟᴜʟᴜ ʟᴇ ᴍᴇᴡ☮︎ (@LuluLemew) August 18, 2019
Research from another organization, Tech Against Terrorism, also suggested neo-Nazi groups use terminology from platforms like Roblox to hide messages, as the company bans inappropriate content. An example on Telegram: a user who publish complete instructions for making bombs to a young man with the message: “Hey kid, do you want to make a mailbox bomb for Roblox?”.
A Roblox driving minigame invited players to simulate the murder of ethnic minorities by running them over with a car. “These are small, but what they do is allow extremists to create experiences to live out radicalized fantasies. on-line“, explained then Jacob Davey, of the Strategic Dialogue Institute.
A stranger behind the screen. In addition, of his target comes another invisible threat in capital letters: strangers who interact with children, disguised as other children. The platform allows players to chat with each other while playing the game and that has led to multitude of allegations of possible sexual predators, which, as in social networks, take advantage of anonymity to interact with minors through chat. They may even offer rewards or in-game items for malicious purposes.
The platform knows it, and that’s why parents can enable more restrictive contact settings that disables chat entirely or limits interactions to friends only. Complaints have arisen from parents who claim that their children received inappropriate images through the application and sexual messages through chat. A particular case reported two players who, with their avatar, they raped the avatar of a seven-year-old girlThey threw her to the ground and simulated sexual abuse. In an environment like Roblox, it is very easy to hide behind the impunity that an avatar offers.