Warnings of sexual predators, extremists targeting children on Roblox

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Roblox is an online game platform popular with children but young users have told the ABC it's also home to sexual predators and far-right extremists.  Young gamers and researchers are warning that children are routinely exposed to violence, hate speech, pro-terror and self-harm content, because of lax safety rules.

Transcript

00:00This is a big story for us here in Australia. As for what kind of place it is, if you're

00:08not familiar, I mean, the first thing to know is it's absolutely vast. It's got an estimated

00:13111 million users daily, globally. About 40% of those are under 13, so a really young user

00:21base. It's less of a specific game and more of a world. You know, you can move in and

00:28out of different games, many of which are generated by users themselves. So, you know, a real

00:34variation in terms of what's available on the platform. And yeah, moving around is this

00:40sort of customisable avatar as well in this shared space. Now, it is marketed to kids.

00:47It's really blocky. It's bright. It kind of looks innocent, but it's a bit more complicated

00:53than that. And there are a lot of adult users of the platform as well. Now, we spoke to

01:00a 16-year-old Roblox user named Ollie, who lives in Melbourne. Now, he's been on Roblox for nine

01:07years. So, he started when he was seven and he spoke to us about all kinds of, well, harms

01:14and really that he's experienced on that platform, really objectionable material, things that he

01:19says he wishes he could unsee. Things like, I mean, several pro-Nazi demonstrations, one

01:26of which happened while we were actually there filming with him. So, that gives you a sense

01:30of how commonplace it can be. Gore, pornography, you know, extreme harassment, bullying, people

01:37being encouraged to self-harm in some instances. Ollie also reported being approached by strange

01:45adults, people who didn't know, who were masquerading as children initially and, you know, asked

01:51to move to a private location off the platform. Now, he didn't go, but that is a well-known

01:56tactic of child sexual predators. So, that's obviously very concerning. And there was an instance

02:02as well where Ollie says he was exposed to child sexual abuse material, which was shared

02:07by an eight-year-old, in fact. Here's what he had to say about his experiences more generally.

02:12I knew, like, way too much at a young age. And it was mainly due to, like, those platforms.

02:19Especially because, like, I could see the content on there and I don't know what it means, but

02:23I repeat it and it turns out I'm repeating really horrible things.

02:26And charmful content can be a problem across many platforms. Is there any particular reason

02:32why Roblox is a major concern? Yeah, there are a few factors that make this platform a particular

02:37concern. It's this mixed age cohort that we're talking about. And the fact that you can't

02:42tell who is what age all the time. In fact, a lot of the time. So, there's a degree of anonymity,

02:50a high degree of anonymity. Also, because of all those users, you know, millions of them

02:54and, like, millions of different games within that, it is a tricky one to moderate. Now,

03:00Roblox does do a lot to try to moderate that. They've got a lot of systems in place, a lot

03:05of rules. But it's, you know, being the vast world full of user generated content that it

03:09is, it is really difficult to stay on top of. It's also possible to voice chat with strangers.

03:15That is another risk factor. Theoretically, it's only possible to do that when you're over

03:2013. But some of their age verification systems, as with many age verification systems, they're

03:24a little bit trickable. You know, people find work around. So, you've got younger people

03:29using voice chat. Yeah. So, it does look, it has all the appearances of being, you know,

03:35just another child's game. But it really is, it has a lot of risk factors to the point that

03:41experts have told us that they see it as a soft target for, or predators see it as a soft

03:46target, rather. And will Roblox be part of the social media ban that starts in December?

03:50We don't know. That is a big question. It is on what you might call a long list of platforms

03:56that have been considered for inclusion in the ban. The eSafety Commissioner has written

04:00to Roblox and a number of other platforms saying, well, we think you might be part of

04:04the ban, complete a self-assessment and tell us why you think you're not, if indeed you think

04:08you're not part of the ban. And they've done so, and we don't know what the decision is going

04:14to be there, whether or not Roblox will even be expected to comply. But Roblox has told

04:19the ABC that it doesn't see itself as part of the ban legitimately. It sees itself as

04:24a gaming platform, and gaming platforms do have a carve out in the legislation under the

04:29rules. So, yeah, that's a bit of a wait and see. We will find out before December 10, of

04:34course. The other thing I would say is that Roblox has made a couple of updates, significant

04:39updates to its safety features in recent months that are worth mentioning. In particular, you

04:46know, users have to now be verified as 17 in order to access certain games. They've tightened

04:52up the labelling of what is, you know, what's adult content on the platform and introduced

04:58more gates there. They've also announced that they're going to extend age verification to

05:02all users who want to use any communication on the platform. So, Roblox recognises that there

05:07are problems here and that, you know, they need to do more to address it. And there will be

05:13more changes coming, although experts, you know, are really saying that they want to see

05:17how it all shakes out before they say whether or not it's all working.

05:20Our national technology reporter, Ange Labois-Pierre, thank you.

05:24Thanks.

05:24And join Ange and along with Raf Epstein tonight at 8pm Eastern Daylight Time for Your Say,

05:31Digital Dilemma, where we delve into the government's social media ban and answer your questions about

05:36how it will work, how under-16s ages will be verified and what it means for privacy and data collection.

05:43So that is Your Say, Digital Dilemma, live on ABC News Channel iview,

05:48also across the local radio network at 8pm Eastern Daylight Time.

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