Shocking short seller report on Roblox describes it as a "hellscape for children"

[Anonymous]

Are you watching your kids on Roblox? Hindenburg asserts that there are all sorts of groomers and pedophiles who use Roblox as a platform to basically try to access your kids. And there is virtually zero screening. Are you concerned?

https://www.ign.com/articles/roblox-accused-of-massively-inflating-user-stats-and-fostering-hellscape-for-children-in-scathing-report

[Anonymous]

My kids never played Roblox but they were watching YouTube videos of the game and there was tons of tr**s propaganda. I deleted YouTube from our TV because of this. I know DCUM is fine with this but the vast majority of parents are not

[Anonymous]

No, one of my kids loves Roblox and uses it as a welcome relaxation after school and activities. I've sat next to her and remarked on how clean the comments are, and she pointed out that nasty comments are frowned upon.

Are your kids very young? They should be taught the basics of internet comms, OP. No identifiers (name, names of relatives, contact info, school, locatable activities or favorite places), ever, even when strangers become internet friends and you feel the urge to share.
No swearing, and no rudeness to others, particularly when it comes to minority groups: no gay/trans slurs, racism, misogyny, or political commentary.

Discord, Tik Tok, Snapchat, Insta, FB, all have their dangers. The internet is full of men interested in looking at (and then perhaps meeting) youths, on every platform. You can ban everything. But it's safer to teach your kids how to protect themselves.

I have teens and volunteer at the local high school. Many teen girls create racy content in skimpy clothes, and post it online. They get likes and attention from everyone, mostly from men. It's not a healthy situation, but so many of them want to be influencers, and some are encouraged by their parents, because it's the new and trendy thing to apply to college and say you've built 100K followers.

So accompany your kids as much as you can in their internet forays, build trust and keep lines of communication open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids never played Roblox but they were watching YouTube videos of the game and there was tons of tr**s propaganda. I deleted YouTube from our TV because of this. I know DCUM is fine with this but the vast majority of parents are not

what is tr**s?

My kids are now teens, and they played roblox as kids. They are normal teens. We've spoken to them many times about not giving people real names or location on line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids never played Roblox but they were watching YouTube videos of the game and there was tons of tr**s propaganda. I deleted YouTube from our TV because of this. I know DCUM is fine with this but the vast majority of parents are not

what is tr**s?

My kids are now teens, and they played roblox as kids. They are normal teens. We've spoken to them many times about not giving people real names or location on line.

trans. PP is a hateful transphobe.

[Anonymous]

I don't know about the groomers or pedos but I found a lot of the content to be inappropriate for ES kids. No Roblox at our house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids never played Roblox but they were watching YouTube videos of the game and there was tons of tr**s propaganda. I deleted YouTube from our TV because of this. I know DCUM is fine with this but the vast majority of parents are not

what is tr**s?

My kids are now teens, and they played roblox as kids. They are normal teens. We've spoken to them many times about not giving people real names or location on line.

trans. PP is a hateful transphobe.

Hah I thought it was Trump

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids never played Roblox but they were watching YouTube videos of the game and there was tons of tr**s propaganda. I deleted YouTube from our TV because of this. I know DCUM is fine with this but the vast majority of parents are not

what is tr**s?

My kids are now teens, and they played roblox as kids. They are normal teens. We've spoken to them many times about not giving people real names or location on line.

trans. PP is a hateful transphobe.

[Anonymous]

It's it really that shocking though? Treat those games as you would the internet

[Anonymous]

People who want to have access to children for nefarious purposes go where children are, and all the better if they’re provided easy cover. Example: the Catholic Church scandal.

The internet provides a new, easier means of access. It’s Roblox, but it’s not limited to Roblox.

[Anonymous]

If you’re concerned I think you can create your own Roblox server that is a closed universe. My college student hosted one when she was in ES and into MS — it was by invite only and if kids were obnoxious, she suspended their privileges.

My older teens still play Roblox but by the time kids are older teens, they really need to know how to deal with the awful parts of the internet. I agree you should proceed with great caution for younger teens or tweens. It’s not just Roblox. You literally cannot conceive of, much less block. all the ways your kid can access dangerous people or content on the internet. At some point you need to teach them the street smarts to block that stuff themselves.

As an aside, one of the things I found most amusing with that Massachusetts guy leaking state secrets in the internet — he was in a gaming room with young teens and kept trying to get them into radical politics. But the 13 year old boys really just wanted gaming tips and kept telling him the political stuff was boring. For the most part, most teens are trying to avoid those adult weirdos online — most teens just want to play games with their friends.

[Anonymous]

NP. I’ve genuinely never understood why parents allow access to Roblox. I think they must not understand how it works. It’s worse than others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re concerned I think you can create your own Roblox server that is a closed universe. My college student hosted one when she was in ES and into MS — it was by invite only and if kids were obnoxious, she suspended their privileges.

My older teens still play Roblox but by the time kids are older teens, they really need to know how to deal with the awful parts of the internet. I agree you should proceed with great caution for younger teens or tweens. It’s not just Roblox. You literally cannot conceive of, much less block. all the ways your kid can access dangerous people or content on the internet. At some point you need to teach them the street smarts to block that stuff themselves.

As an aside, one of the things I found most amusing with that Massachusetts guy leaking state secrets in the internet — he was in a gaming room with young teens and kept trying to get them into radical politics. But the 13 year old boys really just wanted gaming tips and kept telling him the political stuff was boring. For the most part, most teens are trying to avoid those adult weirdos online — most teens just want to play games with their friends.

True, but Roblox is worse because it targets younger kids and is less well supervised. It is indeed a grooming paradise and it is crazy parents don’t see that.

[Anonymous]

If you've spent more than three minutes watching a kid play Roblox, this shouldn't be surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re concerned I think you can create your own Roblox server that is a closed universe. My college student hosted one when she was in ES and into MS — it was by invite only and if kids were obnoxious, she suspended their privileges.

My older teens still play Roblox but by the time kids are older teens, they really need to know how to deal with the awful parts of the internet. I agree you should proceed with great caution for younger teens or tweens. It’s not just Roblox. You literally cannot conceive of, much less block. all the ways your kid can access dangerous people or content on the internet. At some point you need to teach them the street smarts to block that stuff themselves.

As an aside, one of the things I found most amusing with that Massachusetts guy leaking state secrets in the internet — he was in a gaming room with young teens and kept trying to get them into radical politics. But the 13 year old boys really just wanted gaming tips and kept telling him the political stuff was boring. For the most part, most teens are trying to avoid those adult weirdos online — most teens just want to play games with their friends.

True, but Roblox is worse because it targets younger kids and is less well supervised. It is indeed a grooming paradise and it is crazy parents don’t see that.

I disagree. The parents who are afraid of Roblox just haven't looked at what young kids are doing on Discord or Snapchat.