'Don't let your kids be on Roblox', Roblox CEO tells parents, before comparing himself to Walt Disney and declaring the platform 'the future of communication'
Roblox Corporation co-founder and CEO Dave Baszucki has said that parents worried about their kids using Roblox have a fairly simple option open to them: "My first message would be, if you're not comfortable, don't let your kids be on Roblox."
Speaking to BBC News, Baszucki went on to say "that sounds a little counter-intuitive, but I would always trust parents to make their own decisions." It's so nice he trusts us to think about our kids once in a while.
Baszucki's message is "a bit of a get out," said Ellie Gibson of Scummy Mummies. "It's much easier said than done, especially when all their friends are playing it."
Roblox is one of the most popular platforms in the world, with 79.5 million daily active users and a long-term goal (I kid you not) of making that 1 billion daily active users. Roblox Corporation is now worth $41bn (£31bn). It bleeds into the real world in all sorts of ways, such as when the BBC used it last year to explain the UK's general election to children.
Nevertheless the platform remains dogged by accusations it doesn't do enough to protect young users in particular. The horrifying case of a paedophile who abducted a 15 year-old girl after meeting her on Roblox is one of many, with data reported by Bloomberg showing US police have arrested two dozen people since 2018 "accused of abducting or abusing victims" they'd met on Roblox.
Then there are the accusations it exploits young users and has effectively built an empire on the back of child labour (which Roblox denies). Turkey has just straight-up banned Roblox for "child exploitation."
For its part Roblox always emphasises the number of people who have "amazing experiences" on the platform, and highlights the many tools and parental controls it offers.
"We do in the company take the attitude that any bad, even one bad incident, is one too many," says Baszucki. "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."
Last year the company did announce new rules for under-13s following a scathing child safety report, and has AI systems that monitor communications. "We don't condone any type of image-sharing on our own platform, and you'll see us getting more and more, I think, way beyond where the law is on this type of behaviour," says Baszucki.
For my part, I raise my kids on a diet of Nintendo, dad-authorised PC games, and Minecraft without the online features. I would say I'm fairly liberal generally about their exposure to various media but there are lines, and one of them for sure is Roblox. I don't want my kids on it.
Things get slightly off-piste later in the interview, as Baszucki compares the experience of building Roblox to how Walt Disney must have felt when building Disney into what it is. "[The job is] a little like having the opportunity he had a long time ago when he was designing the Magic Kingdom."
If that isn't grandiose enough for you, Baszucki is asked to describe Roblox in three words and goes for four: "The future of communication."