The County of Los Angeles filed suit today against social media gaming platform Roblox alleging that the platform failed to protect children from predatory behavior. The lawsuit alleges that while Roblox markets itself as a safe digital space for creativity, it is in reality an unsafe online environment that has become a breeding ground for predators.
While I do believe Roblox has been doing a terrible job handling reports of predators on it’s platform and the fact that they would rather silence reporters than dealing with the reports is completely abhorrent and inexcusable. I do believe that the responsibility isn’t entirely on them.
Roblox isn’t a daycare. It isn’t a school. It isn’t marketed to have any responsible adults online per number of players.
Honestly, what is the solution that this lawsuit aims to enforce? Paid moderators with complete criminal background checks to be responsible for 10 underage players each? Who’s going to pay for this?
All that said would I allow my children to play Roblox unsupervised? No. Which is a shame as many of the available games are fantastic and my friends children really enjoy playing them. That said supervison can literally be myself glancing over every now and then to see what type of game they are playing and if they are interacting with anyone, really low tier, low effort parenting skills if you know what to look out for.
But it’s a platform marketed towards children, takes a cut of the shovelware that other kids make, and didn’t bother policing their platform seriously until recently. The fact that it’s a kids game that’s marketed to kids and they go after people reporting on the abuses that they let run rampant on their platform is just mental to me. I really hope Roblox gets taken to the cleaners for how they actively have fucked around and let their platform get to where it is.
It’s this type of thinking that is pushing the “but the kids” rhetoric seemingly world wide.
We either have a free, open and anonymous internet… or a dystopian identity-required-at-every-point-of-access, heavily moderated, hellscape.
The internet isn’t a daycare, the parents should be playing with them or close by at all times.
Internet is not a daycare. You are correct.
BUT ROBLOX MARKETED ITSELF AS BEING FOR KIDS. ROBLOX SAID THEY WERE FOR KIDS. YOUNG KIDS. ROBLOX SAID THIS.
You can repeat your daycare line all you want, but that line has nothing to do with what Roblox claimed they were. Your scenario has no place here, since you are not even in the same ballpark or planet as Roblox.
I will repeat it. Roblox is not a daycare. If you want your kids to go online and play games, then supervise them.
Sorry but the ipad isn’t a fucking pacifier. If you want to leave your children unhindered on the internet, Roblox or whatever, then that’s on you. If you aren’t looking after your child’s well-being, then don’t expect some game to do that for you.
The mental gymnastics people put to place the blame firmly on online games is maddening. I expect those who disagree also let their kids run around the supermarket unsupervised.