If you were to listen to the team behind Roblox, they would tell you that their universe is a “wonderful place” that is “full of freedom and creativity” and that you don’t need to worry about certain things that happen within it. Except anyone who’s really dived deep into the game universe knows that’s not true. In fact, it’s a lie in many respects. There have been several incidents in recent times, and since the game launched in 2006, that have caused all manner of controversy and made many wonder just how safe it is for kids to play the game.
Enter Ann Shin, a filmmaker from Toronto, Canada, who decided to take on the question of how “safe” the game was for a new documentary titled “Dangerous Games: Roblox and the Metaverse Exposed.”
Shin and those who helped her with it looked into the game and sought to figure out the truth of what was really going on within it, and in a chat with Mobile Syrup, she noted:
“It was my producer’s idea because she had children playing Roblox, and she started reading up about child predators and other illegal activity that was going on the platform. And so she started talking to me about it, and I have a niece and nephew who play Roblox as well. So we immediately got caught up into what’s going on on this platform, and we wanted to investigate it further.”
As it turned out, there wasn’t much of a “barrier” between the game’s players and some of its darker content. In fact, within just a few minutes of entering the game, they were within a game world that was full of adult content.
The documentary also looks at those raising awareness about the game, including long-time user Alex Farrugia, who took a stand against a “bad actor” who was using their own game world based on Sonic The Hedgehog to lure people to him in the real world. After she helped expose him, it was SHE who was punished by the “community” for exposing this terrible person, and the dev team didn’t stop that person from coming back to the game under another username.
Even still, she’s going forward and trying to protect both her friends who play the game and those who don’t know the dangers that lie within.
Shin also made it clear that despite talking with the company behind the game, they were emphatically “non-responsive” with them, which speaks volumes.
While the filmmaker admits that improvements have been made over the course of this documentary, they feel that more needs to be done.
