If you know a kid who’s obsessed with Roblox, you certainly aren’t the only one. The game is one of the most popular in the U.S. and boasts nearly 50 million active daily users, many of whom are kids and young teens. But, as the game’s user base grows, so does the risk that kids might encounter something confusing, disturbing or even unsafe while playing. That’s why cyber safety experts, pediatricians and plenty of parents are speaking out about the risks and what parents can do to protect their kids.
What is Roblox?
Roblox isn’t one single game. It’s actually a vast gaming platform where players can visit different worlds and play mini games within them. Users have the ability to create unique avatars and purchase in-game accessories. They can also add friends and gain followers, invite friends to different virtual worlds and chat with other players.
Many kids love Roblox for its unique open world and endless array of options to play creatively. Unfortunately, parents and safety experts say the features that make Roblox so fun and accessible for their kids are also what can make them vulnerable to online predators.
Why experts say it’s time to double check Roblox safety features
Kirra Pendergast, a cyber safety expert and the founder of Safe On Social, recently took to TikTok to warn parents about the potential dangers kids might find lurking during their innocent Roblox playtime.
“There’s role playing games that happen in Roblox that you may not even know about. Brookhaven, Blocksburgh, there’s a whole stack of them,” Pendergast says. “When you think about the average age in the game as being 34 to 36 years old and these role playing rooms popping up where kids are asked ‘you play the mom, I’ll be the dad’ or ‘you play the doctor, I’ll be the nurse’ and all of those kinds of things, that’s really worrying to me.”
Pendergast goes on to explain that kids can be targeted via chat and on screen while playing these games. “What we’re seeing is a lot of kids being convinced to go into these role playing games,” she explains. “In some cases, they’re asked to remove their Roblox clothes, they get offered money to perform sexual acts. It’s almost like a form of in-game assault has happened. I’ve spoken to a couple of kids who were really traumatized.”
Pendergast isn’t the only one sounding the alarm over potential predators playing Roblox. On Twitter, a pediatrician recently shared her own concerns about young kids having unsupervised access to Roblox and other online platforms.
“My turn to drive carpool today. Holy sh**, don’t let your kids have TikTok or Roblox chat,” she writes. “Carpool turned into a lecture by this peds [pediatrics] mom about online safety as they talked about both (my kids not allowed). They are getting seductive messages and watching porn. At age 8.”
Other parents quickly jumped in to share their own experiences. “The chats on all the gaming sites are like this,” one writes. “Children are groomed. I have passed info about it to our local police. Parents must be more aware and do more research before they give any internet to kids. Parents have to be parents and protect their children.”
How to protect kids on live gaming platforms
Roblox safety features allow parents to turn off or limit the chat function in the game. Parents also have the ability to check children’s private message history, friend list and followers, as well as view their recently played experiences.
In her video, Pendergast also offers some ways to help kids play online games like Roblox more safely. Here’s what she recommends:
- Don’t let kids play online games unsupervised.
- Make sure you understand how the game works.
- Turn off, limit or password protect chat functions and friend requests.
- Let kids know they should never chat with strangers without parent permission.
- Remind kids that it’s safe to tell you about scary or unsafe things they may encounter.
If kids are subjected to an inappropriate interaction, Pendergast says exiting the game and blocking the offending user are good strategies, but parents should also take steps to document what happened.
“Teach your kids how to take a screenshot,” she advises. “Depending on the device they’re playing on, you may be better off getting your phone and taking a photo of the screen, but either way, try any way possible to get that screenname to report it and use [the screenshot] as evidence to do so.”
