In an interview with Hard Fork, Roblox’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive, David Baszucki, acknowledged that the platform’s predator issue is not just a problem, but also as an opportunity.

“How do we allow young people to build, communicate and hang out together? How do we build the future of communication at the same time?”

The interview caught the media’s attention and people noticed how dismissive the CEO—of a kid’s platform—was toward a conversation about the platform’s child safety.

Roblox is an online game platform that allows users to design and play games created by themselves or other users. 

Recently, concerns about the platform’s moderation for child safety have been raised ever since Schlep—a YouTuber that catches predators on Roblox—posted a photo of a cease and desist letter from Roblox on X (formerly known as Twitter). The post gained traction and raised awareness of Roblox’s lack of moderation and its lack of safety for children over the years. 

Around 50 million of Roblox’s daily active users—a third of its total daily active user count—are below the age of 13, raising more concerns for the safety of children on the platform.

While Roblox has a glaring predator issue, it does make an effort to moderate its platform.

For example, Roblox’s chat filtering has existed since its creation, using hashtags to replace the filtered words. From filtering swear words, unsafe messages, and numbers to making age verification required for all users in order to chat (text, voice, etc.).

“I think we’ve always, from Day 1, really focused very heavily on quality of text filtering.” David Baszucki, Roblox’s co-founder and current CEO, said in an interview with Hard Fork. “And if anything, we’ve had very, very historically restrictive text filtering over time.”

Even with these restrictions, people have found multiple ways to bypass the filter. An anonymous sophomore from East Leyden explained that they would bypass Roblox’s chat filter by using symbols on their ipad’s keyboard to replace letters, spelling out “$h!t” and “🌊unt” in the chat.

Another anonymous sophomore from East Leyden remembers a time when they “saw a group of people on Roblox spell out the ‘N word’ by using t-shirts with single letters.”

Additionally, some phrases don’t get filtered even though they are concerning statements. A report from Hindenburg Research about Roblox talks about their research on the platform while using an account registered as 9-years old. On an experience named “Therapy” with about 63.5 million visits, they were met with a player who introduced themselves as a “rapper with only one p.” A small conversation about running away happened. Alarmingly, the player offered to pick them up and let them live in their basement but with a condition that they “have to pay with their body.”

Along with chat filters, Roblox also has moderation for the experiences their users upload. 

The report, Roblox: Inflated Key Metrics For Wall Street And A Pedophile Hellscape For Kids, from Hindenburg Research found Roblox stating that they have “the best [content moderation] in the world” and that “the content appears on the platform [and is] gone in a matter of seconds.”  

On the contrary, Roblox had social hangout or roleplay games that facilitated sexual roleplay and other inappropriate themes that violate the platform’s TOS. These types of games were known as “condo games” and had popular codenames like “XYZ,” “bathroom,” “vibe,” “sus,” or “r64.”

A notorious example is Meep City, created on February 23, 2016 by alexnewtron. Despite not having suspicious codenames or tags, it was known to be a popular place for online daters, predators, and degenerate users. They abused the player bio to share personal information—such as their age, social media, or location—or to strongly suggest sexual acts like masturbating or recreating sexual intercourse.  Players also abused the party system to have inappropriate gatherings, in which it could be sexual. Players’ houses would be decorated as clubs—having poles, dance floors, couches, and private bedrooms—where users could imitate sexual actions with the naked avatar they created using the avatar editor in the experience.

A month ago, Roblox took the initiative to take these games down or restrict access to them. Searching for “sus” or “r64” resulted in no experiences found. Inappropriate hangout and roleplay games are rated as 13+ or 17+ while non-inappropriate roleplay games are rated as 5+. Even so, these games existed on the platform for a few years—especially Meep City’s existence of 9 years and counting—and were not “gone in a matter of seconds” like they said the content would be.

To increase the safety on the platform, Roblox decided to roll out facial age estimation. In order to chat, users will have to complete age verification and will be put into an age group depending on their result. For example, if someone’s estimated age is 12, they’ll be in the 9-12 years old age group and can only talk to users below the age of 15.

This has brought up a lot of questions and worries about Roblox’s decisions, especially pertaining to the predators on their platform. 

Mr. Bolsey’s YouTube video, Roblox’s AI Age Verification Has a Dangerous Flaw, brings up a point where a pedophile could bypass the system and possibly be put into the 9-12 age group, allowing them to freely talk with minors who might not recognize the predatory behavior. He also noted that adults and older teens won’t be able to intervene since they can’t see their chats.

“Roblox didn’t just restrict communication, they restricted visibility.” Mr. Bolsey said. “Roblox has created isolated spaces where adults can’t look out for them and pedophiles can hide more easily.”

Roblox also allows users to age check with ID verification, which is only allowed to users the age of 13+ or if they were incorrectly estimated below the age of 13. The prevention doesn’t stop children from asking their parents for help, though. An anonymous sophomore at East Leyden said their mom allowed them to use her driver’s license to gain voice chat.

As a platform targeted towards minors, child safety should be its utmost priority, and Roblox claims that safety is core to what they do. Roblox is implementing safety procedures, but the future of the platform’s safety for children is uncertain.

“[Gambling] is a brilliant idea if it can be done in an educational way that’s legal.” David Baszucki, the CEO and Co-Founder of Roblox, said in an interview with Hard Fork—the same interview where he said predators are an opportunity. “And so, imagine no free Robux, no free prizes, just a game called the Dress to To Impress Predictor, where it’s not trying to get kids’ money or anything like that.”