Playing with consequences
For many parents during the pandemic, Roblox, a virtual universe targeted at children, was a saving grace. The online gaming platform became a way for young people stuck indoors to engage in creative play, while staying socially connected with friends and other like-minded peers. In recent years, however, Roblox has also become a source of anxiety and nightmares.
Reports have steadily emerged of children being abused or groomed on the platform by luring them with promises of free Robux— the game’s virtual currency, which has a real-world monetary value. The company is currently facing 80 lawsuits in the United States alone from plaintiffs who assert that the company failed to protect minors from being exploited. One was on behalf of an 11-year-old girl, who was violently raped after being groomed through the platform by a convicted pedophile. Another case is of a 15-year-old boy who was coerced into sharing explicit images via the game’s chat option and later took his own life.
In 2024, United Kingdom-based investigative firm Hindenburg Research published research describing Roblox as “an X-rated pedophile hellscape,” exposing its young users to grooming, pornography, violent content, and abusive speech. The platform has also been criticized for hosting casino-type games that allow underage users to gamble millions of Robux in value. Some in-game spending mechanics are said to promote “child gambling” and cyberbullying. For example, the “pay-to-troll” feature in some games lets users spend Robux so they can annoy and harass other players.
This is not a distant or abstract problem. Roblox-related safety issues are happening here, too.
During a recent strategic planning session, one of my team members shared her chilling experience. Day, 33, is an educator and mother of two girls aged six and seven. One evening, she sat beside her daughters as they played online. Scanning the chat, she noticed that another player had asked her 6-year-old to follow him into an in-game bathroom so they could “talk privately.” Alarmed, Day immediately confronted her children. Her eldest then explained that her younger sister preferred playing on a public Roblox server rather than remaining in a private one shared only with cousins.
“As an educator and a hands-on mom, I already consider myself informed about the risks, and yet my kids were still exposed,” Day said. “I can only imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t been there while they were playing.”
In response to mounting concerns, Roblox recently introduced an artificial intelligence-powered age-estimation feature, which requires users to undergo a facial scan to confirm their age before they can use the chat feature. Roblox then groups users by age (e.g., under 9, 9-12) and restricts chats to peers. Critics note, however, that the technology is not accurate (tends to estimate an older user as younger than their age), and still fails to monitor real-time problematic behavior.
Roblox does offer parental control tools that allow adults to link their accounts to their children’s, monitor chat settings, and track spending. Yet these tools are only effective if parents know they exist and understand how to use them. Not all parents can navigate the game’s interface, and even those who try still struggle to effectively monitor their children’s activities.
Among Filipino parents, the bigger challenge I see is not just a lack of awareness of the risks, but a troubling sense of complacency and invincibility. In the school that I run, we’ve encountered parents who allow 9-year-olds to use social media unsupervised, citing respect for their children’s privacy. Even if they know about the safety issues, there is a pervasive belief that online harm happens to other children, but not to one’s own. It is only when they hear about incidents involving a classmate or neighbor that concern finally sets in.
I have written several columns on how unregulated online activities can harm children. What I’m realizing now is that information alone is not enough. We need to be more intentional in translating seemingly abstract dangers into concrete realities that can unfold in their living rooms.
Day helped her daughters grasp the seriousness of the situation by translating the online interaction into an offline scenario. “If someone you don’t know asks you to go with them to a bathroom outside your house at 10 p.m., would you go?” she asked. That’s when her children understood that there was something wrong with what the anonymous playmate tried to propose. She then walked them through other scenarios, helping them identify warning signs and practice what to do.
At school, we are now using Day’s experience to develop new parenting modules on internet safety. The online world is full of learning opportunities, but it also has very dark corners and predatory individuals. Parents must be present for their kids. Schools must help them see the risks clearly and act before the consequences become irreversible.
—————-
eleanor@shetalksasia.com
