Sometimes, minor steps and moves to try to prevent something don’t work. Sometimes, you need to just drop the hammer and remove something or destroy something so that it doesn’t hurt anyone anymore. Harsh? Sure. But it can be effective in the right circumstances. And yes, we really are talking about Roblox right now. You see, it’s been coming under a LOT of fire recently due to numerous complaints, lawsuits, and even statements from states and countries blasting the company behind the game for not making it safer for players, and thus putting them in danger from those who are lurking on the servers they play in.
There are many who would happily desire a solution that involves nothing short of a complete overhaul of the game’s safety system and active attempts to get rid of predators. However, the response from the dev team has been, at times, condescending and at other times, controversial. So, that’s where Kuwait comes in. Yes, Kuwait. According to Gulf News, the country of Kuwait is fully banning access to the game universe within its borders. The statement given said that the government had received numerous “complaints” from both parents of players and various agencies within the local government, saying that this game was not only a threat to children, but was exposing them to things that children shouldn’t see.
This is a big move, no matter how you look at it. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a country dropping the ban hammer on this game, and there are many who will likely look to Kuwait and hope that it’s not the last to do so.
Due to all the fervor around the title and its safety, there have been rumors spreading that some big things could affect the game and its dev team soon. There was even a fake rumor that started to spread, allegedly coming from the dev team itself, saying that they were shutting down Roblox for good. Obviously, that’s fake, and the account that put it up was a parody site. However, as crass as it may sound, there are plenty of parents and critics who think that a full-on shutdown of the game would be a good thing. There have been numerous cases in the last year of predators getting to young players, and the cases keep emerging.
Something needs to happen to prevent this, and if the dev team can’t/won’t do it, then perhaps it’s time for a more drastic measure to be taken.
