To not let my 9 year old play Roblox

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My 9 year old DS is banging on about wanting to play Roblox. I've said no as I'm concerned about the chat function. There are restrictions for under 12s and apparently it can be disabled but I still feel worried. What do you all think?

Mine play it but they don't have accounts and go on as guests in the under 12 settings. That way the chat isn't working.

Op, I don't know if I missed something when we set it up..it was last year, but she certainly had an under 12s account. She was 9 when she played.
I do agree with others that if you keep on top of it it can be a very good way to teach them about internet safety.
We deleted it as a joint decision in the end after much discussion as the games she liked on it seemed to be dodgy. I know there are lots, we certainly didn't explore them all.
I think if she asked for it back I would consider it but I'd be inclined to encourage her towards something else.

My 7 year old plays it a lot, I would say the biggest danger is that it's very addictive! She has the chat function on but I haven't seen anything worrying. I think it's very heavily moderated, and there's no danger of adults being able to message children. I made an account because I was going away for a few days in the summer and I thought it would be a good way for me to be able to chat to dd while I was away. It would hardly let me type anything though, even really innocent things like 'did you have a good day at xxxx place?' were blocked, I gave up in the end as it wouldn't let me type anything that I actually wanted to!

My Ds (10) plays it.

He has chat turned off and this is pin protected so he can't turn it back on.. He has 5 friends which actually are his friends.

I keep hearing kids are obsessed he probably plays it once a week.He sometimes arranges to play with his friends but it doesn't seem that great they all seem to want to do their won thing so he gets fed up and plays on his own.

The chat function is not moderated. It has filters built in and it's very easy to get round them if you know what you're doing

Don't let this game into your home if you can possibly avoid it. It is horribly addictive, and the words, "it's time to turn it off now" are always followed by, "no, no, please mummy I need to save the game, I just have to finish this, I need to save it" - this takes about ten minutes, if ds is not closely supervised.

Also, some of the games within it are a bit suspect. Ds mostly only plays pokemon, but there was one involving sheriffs and murderers that I wasn't very keen on.

I saw another child get into some inappropriate chatting, even with the friends function turned off. Ds knows not to do this, but I still worry that he'll see something dodgy. There's general chitchat just popping up in the corner of the screen ask the time, I don't think you can disable it.

In short, put this one off as long as you can. I do let ds play it, but honestly wish he had never heard of it.

My 10 year old plays, and I allow the chat function, mainly because he keeps in touch with his closest friends through it.

This is on the basis that he must hand the computer to me at any time during him using it, so I can check what he is up to. Also, the chat is very strictly monitored by the mods.

Mine plays. He likes Lumber Tycoon at the moment and plays with people he knows from school. He plays where I can hear/see him and is at an age where he takes it as a compliment if I ask questions about what’s on the screen.

Following with interest. My 7yo plays it and after the session I always go in and delete any friend requests (she hasn't figured that you can make 'friends' on it)
I'm monitoring her very closely on it, first sign of anything untoward and it will be deleted

Log on as a guest and ensure chat function is disabled. Teacher here too, we had an e safety evening at school, police came to talk to the parents and this was one of the games they mentioned to ensure a close eye was kept on the child playing it.

Ooops!! DS had a birthday almost a month ago! He would not be happy at me describing him as a 10 year old, he is 11. Maybe he needs to supervise my internet use too!

Don't let this game into your home if you can possibly avoid it. It is horribly addictive, and the words, "it's time to turn it off now" are always followed by, "no, no, please mummy I need to save the game, I just have to finish this, I need to save it" - this takes about ten minutes, if ds is not closely supervised.

That is overcome by 'You have ten minutes left' 'You have five minuted left, no arguments'' 'You are done and if you argue, you will not be allowed on for a week'.

We allowed this for a fortnight (DS is 8) then uninstalled it: as others have said, even with the strictest settings and chat and friends functions turned off, other players' chat bubbles are visible and not well moderated from what I saw. The games he wanted to play 'because everyone plays them' were violent and/or unpleasant themes.
I did my strictest and said no, explained why and have ignored repeated requests to install it again since.

No online gaming is without risk, so we've said a blanket no for now until DH and I have the time to learn more about it.

Ds's game got hacked by a stranger so the background said you're finished Bitch, I just deleted it after that, I had all the settings on etc. Until Roblox actually make it safe for kids to use ds won't be using it again, why when there are so many other games ?

Roblox is fine. My seven and ten year old play it. They are both well versed in online safety and speak to me if they are worried about anything. Chat is either disabled or I haven’t worked out how to turn it off in Murder Mystery so if there’s something someone’s not happy with we just change servers. Occasionally I’ve stuck a post it note over the chat if I’m only half supervising.

I play with them and we team up. Great fun.

Roblox and any other online gaming is only unsafe If children are not given the tools to use it safely and parents don’t have an eye on what’s going on. In all the hours it’s been on, I’ve never seen any grooming.

MammaTJ, I do all that, and then I follow through and ban it for a week. The whole process is simply repeated a week later. But thanks for your advice.

I’m a gamer so get the saving angst. 10 minutes before you wAnt him to stop, you ask him to wrap it up and save because you’ll turn it off straight away when time is up.

My DC use it. We have had several discussions in our house about speaking to strangers online.
When they use it, I remind them, if anyone attempts to talk to them, we discuss it.
They have to learn how to keep themselves safe online.

My ds is 9 and loves it, sometimes his 13 year old sister joins in as well. Some of his friends play as well.
Does anybody collect the toys and would like to swap some duplicates?

DD (10) plays and it's fine. I'm the most anti-computer games person I know and even I think it's ok. Although it did take us a while to allow her to go on it, i did what you are doing and spoke to other parents to see what they thought. Just make sure the privacy buttons are set etc... and it's ok. We speak to DD and she knows not to talk to other people, just her school friends - this is a condition to her using it. So far we've had no problems and We trust her to do this. As a previous poster said it's great for meeting up with their school friends and playing together. That said, if you're not happy then don't allow it, your children, your rules.

We also had the discussion about having a username that’s not identifiable. There are people on Roblox with names like HarryT2008 which is probably owned by a Harry T who’s born in 2008 and going to raise the odds of a groomer speaking to them.

Thanks again all! Definitely not comfortable enough to let him on it at present, however mean he thinks I am!!

For those who don't know how to turn off chat find settings it is all in there...

RE 10 minutes...It doesn't work ime with games..You need to give them 10 minute warning then at 5 minutes.. Finish off what you are doing and save it.. At 2 minutes.. You need to save now or it will be lost when it gets turned off in 2 minutes.

My DS is also the same with books.. Reading in the bath tonight..Will you now get a wash and get out the bath..Can I just finish this Chapter. Reading after bedtime but I don't ban books.

I also will say re chat groomers are clever. Before I learnt to disable chat DS was on Roblox..Someone asked what school he went to..My DS sensibly replied Personal infomation
I did then point out to him that although he had not given the information out about himself and well done for that he had just told a potential groomer that he was a school boy..At first he didn't get it..Then I said what would I say if you asked me what school I went to? So while your children might well understand the rules , the groomer is a manipulative adult.

Be very careful of any payments. I used to buy my son a few pounds of Robucks once in a blue moon, the account was hacked & £450 taken from my Paypal account. PayPal refused to refund but luckily Roblox did. It's very open to hacking, my son & his friends were all madly addicted for a while & I never allowed chat with strangers. I'm very wary of it now. Just don't trust it.

My kids play roblox, as I find teaching them how to be safe online is more effective than just a blanket ban
^^ yes this
It's far easier to teach and influence kids when they are young than it is when they are teenagers.