Don’t like Roblox? Just get your kids off. It should be as simple as that—at least, according to the CEO of Roblox.
In an interview with BBC, Dave Baszucki, a co-founder and current CEO of the gaming mega powerhouse, Baszucki swore that parents should really just try to get their kids off the controversial game platform and engine. It’s a pertinent question, as Roblox is possibly the biggest hot topic in the question of protections for kids online.
“My first message would be, if you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox,” he said of the discomfort that’s been expressed by parents over kids’ access to Roblox. He insists that there are sufficient parental control tools, and that parents should utilize them.
However, he recognizes, at least, that it really isn’t that easy all the time, because parenting can’t be that easy.
“We all know that with the best will in the world life sometimes gets in the way,” he continued.
“If you’ve got multiple children you’re looking after and things happen, and you probably can’t 24/7 watch everything they’re doing, even if you’ve got all your parental controls set.” (One guest interview subject chimed the sentiment, but more accusingly of the CEO.)
It feels like a pragmatic angle, as parental controls are often touted as the be-all end-all of online safety tools.
On the other hand, they later interrogated Baszucki on the availability of certain contentious recommendations to their Roblox account of a fictional 11-year-old, including “Late Night Boys And Girls Club RP,” Special Forces Simulator,” and “Squid Game” (which, despite its popularity, is still a very bloody M-rated program).
Indeed, Roblox has been a subject in the past of more thorough versions of this type of investigation into the game’s parental controls—or lack thereof. As a result of this scrutiny, the game’s creators have attempted to up their parental controls and general account access across the game’s many instances and game modes.
In this interview, he insists that Roblox is doing its best to ensure the balance between kids’ freedom to play with friends and preventing harm. However, it’s still the Internet, and when there’s a will for both kids messing around and malicious actors, there’s a way—which the BBC explores further in the full interview, pointing out that everyone works around the pre-approved words, much like TikTok users swapping out “killed” for “unalived.”
Given the dangers of unfettered browsing, and the history of attempted “kid-friendly” MMORPGs like Club Penguin, it seems the more the Internet changes, the more it stays the same.
