A brand new investigation reveals that youngsters as younger as 5 can simply entry inappropriate content material and work together unsupervised with adults on Roblox, regardless of the platform’s child-friendly picture and up to date security updates. The Guardian studies: Describing itself as “the final word digital universe,” Roblox options tens of millions of video games and interactive environments, identified collectively as “experiences.” A number of the content material is developed by Roblox, however a lot of it’s user-generated. In 2024, the platform had greater than 85 million each day lively customers, an estimated 40% of whom are beneath 13. Whereas the corporate stated it “deeply sympathized” with dad and mom whose youngsters got here to hurt on the platform, it stated “tens of tens of millions of individuals have a optimistic, enriching and protected expertise on Roblox each day.”
Nevertheless, in an investigation shared with the Guardian, the digital-behavior consultants Revealing Actuality found “one thing deeply disturbing … a troubling disconnect between Roblox’s child-friendly look and the truth of what youngsters expertise on the platform.” […] Regardless of new instruments launched final week aimed toward giving dad and mom extra management over their youngsters’s accounts, the researchers concluded: “Security controls that exist are restricted of their effectiveness and there are nonetheless vital dangers for youngsters on the platform.”