Why I don’t allow my child to use Roblox

• Roblox is a popular video game platform for children. I won’t let my own child use it.
• Hindenburg Research has accused Roblox of being unsafe for children; The company rejects this.
• I downloaded Roblox to try it out for myself. I have some concerns.

I have an elementary school aged child who loves video games and would love to play Roblox. After downloading it and testing it myself, I don’t allow it.

Why? Even with the “under 13” settings enabled, I didn’t feel comfortable with the level of control over the type of content I could access – and that he could access it.

If you’re over 30 or don’t live with a teenager, you may have only heard of Roblox in passing. Unlike most Xbox or PlayStation video games, Roblox’s games are user-generated – and there are thousands of them. Kids can build and create their own games and potentially earn money in the form of “Robux.” In theory, this is a great way for them to be creative and learn a little programming.

The user-generated content also means that some games aren’t exactly high quality – or they appeal to children’s worst impulses (toilet humor, cartoon violence, unauthorized use of intellectual property).

For example, when I was browsing on Tuesday, I saw horror games and gun-themed games that were suitable for “all ages.” Many games seem to be about intellectual property: Peppa Pig, SpongeBob and Mickey Mouse most likely appear in various games without permission.

There were games that weren’t necessarily violent or sexual, but had weird physical content, like Fat Race or Get Fat and Roll.

On Tuesday, Hindenburg Research, a short seller, released a report accusing Roblox of inflating user metrics and deceiving investors. The company’s shares fell more than 9% following the report, but recouped some of their losses to trade at 2.13% on the day.

A Roblox spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement: “We completely reject the allegations made in the report. Hindenburg Research’s financial claims are simply misleading. “The authors are admittedly short sellers and have an agenda regardless of the content.” Roblox’s business model and results.”

The Hindenburg report also accused Roblox of “exposing children to grooming, pornography, violent content and extremely offensive language.” Roblox disagreed, saying it was a “safe platform.”

Hindenburg’s report was not the first to detail concerns about children’s use of the platform. In July, Bloomberg published a story titled “Roblox’s Pedophile Problem.” (Roblox’s chief safety officer told Bloomberg at the time that the platform had no problem with child safety.)

In my exploration of the platform, I found that parents can turn off the “chat” feature, which can alleviate some worries about children talking to adults. But that doesn’t solve my problems with the actual content of the games, some of which dealt with sexual and violent themes.

Part of Hindenburg’s report caught my attention as a parent. I haven’t accessed these games myself, but the bullet points below are from Hindenburg, in the short seller’s own words:

• Users seeking sexual experiences on Roblox are so widespread that there are thousands of Roblox sex videos on porn sites that invite users of unknown ages to create explicit content on the platform.
• We tested the Roblox experience to see what else kids experience. We quickly encountered images of male genitalia and hate speech in Roblox’s School Simulator game, which received 28.9 million unrated visits.
• Despite the company’s mission to “connect a billion users with optimism and civility,” we found games like “Beat Up Homeless Outside 7/11 Simulator,” which had 1 million visits and 15,000 favorites before being removed from Roblox.
• Nonetheless, Roblox users who identify as 9 years old and older can still beat up homeless people in Beat Up People Outside of 7/11, which has over 900,000 visits.
• In the game “Beat Up The Pregnant,” users hacked pregnant women to death in a Wal-Mart parking lot with machetes or killed them with frying pans or an assortment of weapons.
• We played”[GUNS] “Work at a Hospital” offers users the opportunity to take part in a hospital shooting spree. The game has approximately 1.6 million visits and remains on the platform with no age restrictions. The game’s thumbnail is a picture of a scared pregnant woman.

A Roblox spokesperson told Business Insider: “Security and civility have been fundamental to Roblox since our founding nearly two decades ago, and we have invested heavily in our trust and security efforts throughout our history.”

“Every day, tens of millions of people of all ages have a safe and positive experience on Roblox while adhering to our community standards.”

“We take any content or behavior on the platform that does not meet our standards extremely seriously and have a robust set of proactive and preventative security measures in place designed to detect and prevent malicious or harmful activity on our platform.”

I’m sure there are positive experiences on Roblox. I’ve heard from parents who think it’s perfectly fine for their children to be supervised by adults. some even play along.

But to my 8-year-old’s dismay, it will be a no – at least for now.