Say it, Bubsy. Say the line.
Roblox has announced their intention to open up their game to content beyond the “kid friendly”* fare they’re known for. According to the press release, they plan to open up the platform to 17+ content.
*I’m using that term loosely, given what I know
Our goal has always been to build an immersive platform for communication and connection with safety and civility at its foundation. Roblox is a platform for all ages where no matter how old people are, they can connect with friends and discover a wide range of relevant, engaging, and age-appropriate experiences.
The fastest-growing age group on Roblox is 17-to-24-year-olds and in 2022, 38% of our daily active users were 17 and over. As a natural evolution, we’re now allowing creators to make content specifically for this audience. Only those who have verified that they’re at least 17 will be able to create or consume these experiences.
The intent is for these games, or experiences as they term them, to have more mature content in them. This content will be able to include “intense violence, heavy realistic blood, moderate crude humor, romantic themes, unplayable gambling content, and/or the presence of alcohol,” according to the site’s guidelines. That said, sexual content, nudity, references to illegal drugs, and graphic violence are still off the table as far as the 17+ guidelines are concerned.
Most importantly, to access these 17+ experiences, an account needs to be age-verified. To become age-verified, you need to provide a valid government issued photo ID, as well as a selfie.
While the site has hosted content for ages 9+ and 13+ in the past, it has struggled to to successfully police its content. In an interview with Reuters last year, the company’s Morgan McGuire claimed that doing so was “more like shutting down speakeasies” than moderating content elsewhere. Considering their playerbase and the over 50,000,000 games hosted on the platform, it’s very believable that they’re suffering from their success in such a way.
Roblox has also had their share of controversies; in 2018, a 7-year-old girl’s avatar was sexually assaulted. In 2022, the platform was alleged to have been the medium by which a 10-year-old girl was sexually and financially exploited. And also, Kim Kardashian threatened to sue the platform, as her son happened across a game made by a user which incorporated content from her infamous sex tape.
Aside from all that, though, they have a massively exploitative microtransaction system in place through the use of Robux. Each Robux is equal to ~$0.01, but that’s the thing – since it’s such a small amount, it’s easy to spend. And oh boy, can you spend them; not only are there customization items for your avatar to spend on, there are many games that are designed to Hoover those Robux out of your pocket. Gambling may not be allowed, but a lot of scummy mobile game microtransaction tactics are. Copyright infringement is rampant and near impossible to stamp out, too (see 2 paragraphs ago).
Oh, yeah, not to mention all of those advertisements (the H&M dimension in the video above cracks me up). Some advocacy groups have called them lacking in guardrails, and basically unregulated.
So will Roblox’s 17+ content plan work? Will it cut down on the amounts of adult content children are exposed to on the platform? Time will tell. But I wouldn’t hold my breath; this is a platform where the bulk majority of its content is seemingly user generated. And that usually means that inappropriate stuff is gonna sneak on through.
Source: Gizmodo
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