Roblox has claimed it has a “robust set of community standards” and that they “limit chat for younger users”
Parents are being warned of the dangers children face during online gaming sessions including exploitation and being groomed. One senior police officer said this is happening on online gaming platforms at an “alarming scale”, as safeguarding measures appear to be lacking.
Detective Superintendent Michael Mullen told Irish current affairs programme, Prime Time that Gardaí are “seeing grooming, sexual exploitation, and sexual abuse as a result of children being on gaming platforms, and in some cases, moving on to other platforms”.
He added that he was “very concerned” about exploitation he said was taking place “on a daily basis”.
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Roblox is a platform that is made up of millions of user-created games. Every day, people of all ages play and chat together as they take part in playing different online games.
The platform is unusual compared to some others, including several social media companies that require users to be at least 13-years-old to make an account. The youngest sign-up age for Roblox — according to reports — is just five-years-of-age.
As per Roblox’s own findings, over 150 million people use the platform daily — which is more than the population of Russia — and a third of those participating are under the age of 13. Prime Time created several test accounts for a five-year-old, a nine-year-old and a 13-year-old.
They claimed that at no stage were they asked for age verification or parental permission to set up an account.
The report read: “At no stage were we asked for Once logged in, there was no prompt to turn on optional additional parental controls, so we proceeded with Roblox’s default safety features.
“Over roughly 12 hours playing different games across three accounts, Prime Time found examples of dating role-play games and simulated sexual acts in public toilet games, rated suitable for five years and older, despite Roblox’s terms prohibiting such content.
“In experiences rated suitable for over 13s, we found examples of users simulating lap dances, clothing branded with racial slurs, and discussions of suicide, which Roblox also says it prohibits.”
In a statement to Prime Time, Roblox said “protecting children is a top priority.” It added its teams have investigated the examples sent by Prime Time, and “removed or suspended content that did not meet our standards”. The company claimed it had a “robust set of community standards” and that they “limit chat for younger users”.
But, the situation on the platform appears to remain problematic. Elsewhere, the platform is attracting growing scrutiny after state attorneys in the US states of Texas, Kentucky and Louisiana have filed legal cases alleging the company has failed in its duty of care to protect minors.
According to Prime Time, over a dozen families are also suing the company for allegedly enabling sexual exploitation of children on Roblox.
Earlier in November, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said: “Roblox markets itself as a safe digital space of creativity, but in reality it has become a breeding ground for predators”.
PSNI have a campaign called Keeping Children Safe Online where they offer advice to parents about the potential issues that may arise for children while gaming. On the page, the PSNI wrote that reports of online child sexual abuse crimes to police have jumped by over 80% during the last several years.
The campaign page reads: “The Northern Ireland Assembly included four new offences to strengthen our response to online grooming of children in its Justice (Sexual Offences and Trafficking Victims) Bill (April 2022).
“Now, any adult found masquerading as a child online to lure and groom will face up to two years in prison and up to 10 years on the sex offenders register. We are asking parents to pose the question to themselves – do you know who your child is really speaking to online?”
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