Roblox Safety Concerns

Roblox is an online gaming platform that allows users to share and play a variety of games while text and voice chatting with others. The platform itself does not create games but moderates and hosts games created by users worldwide. Roblox does however sell different skins and decorative outfits for your characters to use in the games. While this is a great place for kids to play and connect with their friends, you can find yourself stumbling upon upsetting situations. Here are some recent news stories involving Roblox that we think will help you to feel safer while using the platform. 

Live Chat Checks

The first story by The Washington Post details Robloxs voice chat checks in order to protect younger users from inappropriate conversations or noises. All users that want to use the voice chat must submit an ID that proves that they are over the age of 13, restricting the feature from any user under that age. Although it seems that many users are getting past this feature and are able to access the chat rooms. It also brings up privacy concerns as to where the data from your ID is stored. Roblox has employees manually monitoring these live chats and basing their work on users reports, blocks and mutes. It is important to be vigilant while using this feature of the platform because even with safety settings in place you may face some issues.

Influx of Incident Reports Related to Children

According to an article by MoneyLife in a recent study it was found that 61% of complaints to roblox were incidents concerning kids aged 8 to 12 and 18% were pertaining to kids aged 4-7. Roblox is marketed as a place safe for children but judging by these results. In alignment with these statistics there was also a great number of complaints worldwide to the FTC. While applications can be targeted towards children but that does not always mean that it will be a safe experience. It is up to you to know how to protect yourself from problems that may arise from harmful situations. You can read more about this here. 

Watchdog Group Warns Roblox Users

In an article by CBS they are reporting on a warning put out by a watchdog group about roblox concerns. The warning has to do with inappropriate content that is readily available to young kids. Although the platform generally acts quickly and removes the content, users are able to easily reupload the game, creating a vicious cycle. This content can be graphic, sexual or just upsetting in nature and are usual disguised as something innocent encouraging kids to click and play. If you specify on your account you are under the age of 13 then your account will push this content to you less often or never. Read more about this story here. 

Roblox seems innocent enough but can cause serious issues, especially for children. Make sure you are aware of the risks and know how to protect yourself. We hope that we helped you on your cyber security education journey. Follow Kids Shield on social media platforms to get more cyber security content and resources. Also sign up for the Kids Shield email list to never miss out on a blog. Be educated, be connected and be safe.