The CEO of multi-billion pound gaming platform Roblox has suggested parents worried about its safety should not let their kids play the game.
“My first message would be, if you're not comfortable, don't let your kids be on Roblox,” CEO Dave Baszucki told the BBC in a recent Gaming Empire: The Roblox Story programme, which is available on BBC iPlayer.
Roblox reportedly has more than 300 million active monthly users, and has been subject to numerous accusations of lax safety standards over the years.
• Read more: Essential Roblox parental-control settings, after 10-year-old spends £2,500-plus on game
A Bloomberg report from 2023 suggested the Roblox platform itself reported more than 13,000 instances of child exploitation in the US, and had to respond to more than a thousand requests from law enforcement about potentially predatory players.
“We watch for bullying, we watch for harassment, we filter all of those kinds of things, and I would say, behind the scenes, the analysis goes on all the way to, if necessary, reaching out to law enforcement,” Mr Baszucki said during the BBC interview.
Roblox announced improvements to its child safety policies in October 2024, in requiring parental permission to grant players under 13 access to the game’s chat features, disabling them for younger players as standard.
During the programme, though, the BBC also demonstrated how easy it is for minors to be contacted by adult players, and take part in Roblox instances that may contain unsuitable content.
The Roblox universe is make up of user-made games and experiences produced by other players, some of which attract far larger crowds of players than many AAA games.
Roblox creator Roblox Corporation went public in 2021, and its current price values the platform at around £30bn.
PEGI categorises Roblox as “parental guidance recommended”, citing that it “contains a broad and unpredictable range of user-generated content, which may contain elements that are unsuitable for younger children”.
• Read more: Ofcom tells tech companies to hide toxic online content from children
