It is pointed out that the game platform 'Roblox' with more than 100 million monthly active users is a hotbed for pedophiles
Problems at Roblox (RBLX) --by Edwin Dorsey --The Bear Cave
https://thebearcave.substack.com/p/problems-at-roblox-rblx
Roblox was released in 2006, but was initially a relatively small platform, partly because it was buried in other similar services. However, Roblox, which allows you to play a large number of games for free and also create and publish your own games, has gained the support of children as a 'game version of YouTube', and there is also a pandemic of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Has achieved rapid growth. In March 2021, the market capitalization reached 38.2 billion dollars (about 4.14 trillion yen at the rate at that time), and it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange .
However, it seems that pedophiles are also gathering at Roblox where many children are playing, and many criminals have already been prosecuted. For example, in September 2020, a man named Clinton McElroy, who was registered as a sex offender, sent an 8-year-old girl a 'sexual video' in exchange for Roblox's in-game currency 'Robux.' I was arrested for arguing.
Also in June 2021, a man named Ron Machluf was charged with using Roblox's chat 'to seduce a few girls aged 7-12 and commit sex crimes.' Machluf also gave the girl Robux in exchange for partial nude photos. Since then, sex offenders using Roblox have been arrested by police intermittently, and it is reported that there were cases in which they impersonated a girl in the game and approached the victim.
On its support page , Roblox said, 'A large team of thousands of professionally trained members is dedicated to protecting users and monitoring for inappropriate content 24/7. I am doing it. ' However, Edwin Dorsey , who investigates and publishes harmful activities of companies, said, 'This may not be enough,' Roblox's measures protect children in the platform from pedophiles. Pointed out that it is not useful.
For example, a survey conducted by Fast Company , an online business magazine in August 2020, also found that an online room that resembles a love hotel is created in Roblox as follows. At the top, you can see options that show lewd behavior, such as 'LAY', 'HUG', 'SUCK', 'CUM', and 'Naked'. increase.
Also, in the image below, a user who is 10 years old says 'It's a chill room' for a room with a sign 'Give your partner a suck'. I'm talking about a room.
In October 2021, Roblox updated its Terms of Service to ban 'grasp' and other romantic gesture animations, but this didn't help much. Watch the video below on YouTube in January 2022 and you'll see a lot of users doing things like strippers in a strip club created within Roblox. In exchange for Robux, some children turn on the audio function and play the role of the stripper.
ROBLOX STRIP CLUBS HAVE VOICE CHAT NOW !? --YouTube
The problem of pedophiles in Roblox is also rooted in the developer community that publishes games that can be played within Roblox. In 2017, a user named 'jaredpogi123kaba' posted a lot of content on the community forum that linked to illegal sexual child abuse sites, and the forum was closed. Also, a video audio text showing that a user named 'Mister Obvious', who won the 'Bloxy Award' sent to the best Roblox developers once, requested a minor girl to send sexual content is revealed. Was issued to.
In addition, Dorsey points out that Roblox's problems are not only on the user side, but also on the administrator side. For example, Roblox's trust and safety manager, Bob Pieron, has been revealed to follow accounts on Twitter for posting sexual images of cartoon animal characters and accounts for sexual cosplayers. increase.
One of the people who has exposed these Roblox issues is the popular YouTuber Ruben Sim . In November 2021, Roblox filed a proceeding against Ruben Sim for 'committing an illegal act aimed at hurting Roblox and its users.' Roblox claims that Ruben Sim continues to play Roblox using accounts created by others, even though his account has been banned, uploading radical content to YouTube and Patreon for funding. He said he is earning money.
Popular game 'Roblox' with more than 100 million monthly active users appeals to popular YouTuber --GIGAZINE
Ruben Sim, on the other hand, revealed in a video released in January 2022 that Roblox's former social media manager ran a porn blog with animal characters and his own photos. Only two days after the video was released, a settlement with Roblox was reached.
Dorsey also pointed out how Roblox's in-game currency, Robux, can be redeemed for real money, buying items such as clothes to wear on avatars and reselling them on the marketplace to profit from price fluctuations. .. It criticizes this as a system that can be a kind of gambling.
Furthermore, within Roblox, the developer literally publishes a 'gambling game', and users can bet Robux and gamble with games such as coin flips, dice, and roulette. The popular game RBX Flip is touted as the 'original Roblox casino' and claims to have bet $ 700 million worth of Robux in 2021 (about 77 billion yen at the rate at the time).
According to sources interviewed by YouTube channel People Make Games , Roblox's black market is so big that managers can only pretend to be afraid of backlash. However, developers who are allegedly involved in money laundering and remittance services could be penalized if regulators embark on full-scale regulation.
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in Web Service, Video, Game, Posted by log1h_ik