The County of Los Angeles filed suit today against social media gaming platform Roblox alleging that the platform failed to protect children from predatory behavior. The lawsuit alleges that while Roblox markets itself as a safe digital space for creativity, it is in reality an unsafe online environment that has become a breeding ground for predators.
My son doesn’t play roblox, isn’t allowed to play roblox, and doesn’t want to play roblox. I got weird vibes from it when he was small and I looked into, and just didn’t let him. He played Mario and stuff like that, usually as a family.
A decade later, My son has friends. He has at 12, no resentment for not playing roblox, bro dog doesn’t even want a phone that badly yet. Its, cool and I’m probably lucky.
Why do kids have to play roblox to socialize? Why will there be resentment? He resented the neighborhood boy the day he asked him to come over and play outside with him, and the boy said he’d rather play on his computer. My son was upset with the friend, not me. He always preferrs real life play to games online. He wasn’t mad at me for it, he was sad his friend would rather sit alone in his house (parents weren’t home) than come play in our yard.
I didn’t mean to imply that this kind of conflict between tech, parents and peer pressure would come up for every kid. It sounds like you’ve cultivated a healthy distance from tech for yours, and that this is something you hopefully shouldn’t even have to worry about.
I was into gaming with my friend group, but back then it was split-screen and LAN parties. I still got plenty of outside time and physical activity. Our games didn’t focus solely on dark patterns and addictive elements - much less the possibility of encountering random adult weirdos. The fact that the environment has worsened doesn’t mean gaming is going away or that kids will lose interest.
There is a subset of kids whose parents do have to navigate this minefield, and Roblox is just one example. That’s not to let the parents off the hook entirely, but it’s entirely plausible to me that the corporations behind their kids’ favorite games may have been misleading about safety and even complicit in enabling this kind of abuse.