There are some things in life that are just out of our control, and despite all we try to do, sometimes, it’s not enough. It’s actually a sign of emotional and personal growth when you can admit to yourself “that you can’t fix everything,” and work to focus on the things you can control and fix. In the case of Roblox, though, things are a bit more complicated, and the team behind the popular online title isn’t helping make it less complicated. As we’ve covered plenty of times on the site, the free-to-play online universe has been blasted for its lack of safety features regarding young players, and it’s gotten numerous lawsuits as a result.
In a special post by Politico, it broke down many of the issues that Roblox is facing via these lawsuits, and how things look from their side, and what is “really being done” to fix things. At one point, it would be fair to read this piece and ask, “Is it right for us to judge them on failing to monitor something with so many players?”
At first, that question seems fair, as the game has over 100 million players on it every day, and that’s a lot of accounts to monitor, not including chats and various acts that happen within. However, as the Politico piece continues, you’ll see that the dev team has actually gone out of their way to NOT be held down by certain laws in various states that REQUIRE them to have certain protections to prevent child abuse. They straight-up paid lobbyists to rally on their behalf that they didn’t “need to be a part of this law.” Thankfully, they failed, but they’ve also moved the entire company to new states in the past to have “looser laws” put against them.
It also doesn’t help that when certain players within the universe step up to try and stop predators themselves, THEY are the ones who get banned and not the predators themselves. This resulted in both a petition for the company CEO to resign and a rumor that Chris Hansen himself will team up with this now-terminated player to highlight just how much of a “predator area” the game is.
Some countries are going a different route, as Kuwait has banned the game outright within the country.
While it’s fair not to want to blame Roblox for EVERYTHING bad that happens in their title, they do have a responsibility to try as much as possible to keep players safe, and it’s clear that they aren’t doing that.
