How To Deal With Roblox
So…Roblox is a little sketchy. Alot has been written and said about Roblox in the last several weeks. This week’s post gives you what you need to deal with it safely. Then, in Worth Flagging, I share about a cool new communication device for kids that is NOT a watch! Plus, Paid subscribers get a quick tutorial on where to find and set up Roblox Parental Controls.
The main issues for parents are twofold:
Group chat with strangers
Inappropriate content
Photo by Oberon Copeland @veryinformed.com on Unsplash
What To Do
If your kid has Roblox and you aren’t sure what to do next, here’s my advice
Sit down with your kid and their Roblox account
Make sure your child is using their real age
Have them show you the games they are playing
Enable the parental controls. *Roblox is clearly making changes so you may either get prompted for a parental pin or get the ability to enable restrictions which completely shuts down chat. If you get prompted for the pin, set it up but do not show it to your kid. That pin–that is for you.
If you child’s account is pin enabled, limit the chat to friends only or disable chat altogether
If you keep chat–make sure you know the friends they are already connected to. Like know who they are IRL.
Make sure your child is playing in a public area of your house
My $0.02
There are enough controls to limit the chat. Please do this.
I am less confident in the content.
Anywhere you have a game that has age gates for younger kids and a more mature version for adults, you run the risk of mistakes and bad actors trying to sneak inappropriate content past the age gates.
If you continue to allow Roblox, consider evaluating every game before allowing it. Seriously. There are games whose topics are awful (eg The Hindenburg report found games about beating pregnant women, shooting up a hospital & more). There are also games with sneaky inappropriate stuff (a game that takes place in a school where pornographic pictures were surreptitiously placed on the chalkboards in certain classrooms.
A few additional tips
Avoid Adults Studios- there are many, many inappropriate games in this area and the age gating appears to be inconsistent
Avoid anything with an XYZ room. An XYZ room, which I learned about from Nicki Reisberg’s Scrolling2Death Podcast, is a place where characters in a game go have sex, apparently. Thank you Scrolling2Death for teaching me about this!
Resources
If you’re interested in diving deeper on Roblox, please check out:
The Hindenburg report
Roblox’s response to the Hindenburg report
This very good episode of the Scrolling 2 Death podcast.
The Gamer Educator on Instagram. They have some really great perspective on how to frame video games to kids in a healthy way.
