Online game poses danger to children
Explicit content prevalent
Roblox, a popular children's game with 58% of its users under the age of 16, as reported by the company itself, has an alleged problem with adult content hosted on the site.
Aldo HornAccording to a report published on Hindenburg Research, there are many groups in this video game that distribute explicit content of underage children for Robux, the currency used for buying cosmetic items in the game.
Investigators created an account and set its age to eight years old. This account was allowed to access many of these groups where minors are reportedly groomed by adults for explicit content in order to get their hands on free Robux without any struggle. Some of these groups are as large as 103 000 members - most of them completely accessible to underage children.
This 103 000-member group, which was deleted after the publication of the Hindenburg Research report, has existed since 2009.
A large amount of the content distribution does not take place in Roblox, but rather on different messaging apps such as Discord since these apps do not moderate one-on-one conversations. Users on Roblox usually have a link to their other platforms in their bio.
Serious risk
Ruben Sim, a content creator who is not associated with Roblox in an official capacity, runs an X account that reports on accounts tied to explicit content in the game.
On 2 September, his account announced lists of Roblox accounts “confirmed to be part of the erotic roleplay community” that “pose a serious risk to Roblox’s young players by exposing them to sexual and pornographic content”, according to the report.
The report further claimed that there is a lot of content on the platform that, while not illegal, is inappropriate for the ages of the average users - 21% of whom are under nine years old, 21% between nine and 12, and 16% between the ages of 12 and 16.
An example of such content is the abundance of accounts named after Jeffrey Epstein, an American man who pleaded guilty to charges of sex trafficking involving a minor. Epstein is not the only paedophile’s name that was used; others include Earl Brian Bradly, who was indicted on 471 charges of exploiting 103 underage children.
It is unclear how many of these accounts pose an actual danger to children and how many are simply ill-conceived jokes.
Other content includes mini games with names such as ‘Escape to Epstein Island’ or ‘Diddy Party’ which are available to play for anyone.
One mini game, ‘School Simulator’, allows players to draw freely on a chalkboard. According to the report, the investigating team quickly encountered slurs and drawing of genitals while playing the game.
Another mini game called ‘Palestine and Isreal Hangout’ involves players of all ages purchasing bombs and knives with which to attack each other.
Not the first time
According to Roblox CEO David Beszuki in November 2023, spending on trust and safety expenses has dropped by 2% due to the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) content moderation. This AI moderation has, however, been unable to detect many of the above-mentioned groups.
Roblox is not the first time a game for children has become a hotspot for child predators.
Another game, Club Penguin Online - a clone of the official Club Penguin - was shut down by Disney shortly after accusations of grooming minors were levied against its owner. In most of these cases, parents aren’t aware that this is happening, since the games look very child-friendly from the outside.