Would this be weird?

[lovelyjubilly]

My 7yo dd has recently discovered an app on her tablet on the recommendation of some of her school friends. It's called Roblox and seems to be some sort of online social gaming thing.
WIBU to put a message on her school's fb page asking people to share their dc's usernames so that my dd can add them as friends? Or would that be weird/inappropriate?
It's a small school if that makes a difference (1-form-entry) and so dd knows a lot of the kids in other year groups.

I wouldn't. Is the FB page public?

She discovered it on her tablet? How did it get There?

You shouldn't OP. They're too young to interact like that ...it always ends in tears.

Would it be better to ask if people would be willing to private message me their usernames?

WhatshallIdonow she asked me to add it onto her tablet. So far she has only been playing it under supervision. It seems harmless enough and she's not very tech-savvy. She doesn't understand the social aspect of it yet, she's just playing the games.

www.snopes.com/roblox/

There’s benn lots of press about children chatting to unknown adults with inappropriate content

Unproven by snopes but to me that’s worrying enough. Don’t bloody publicise your child’s username

Why on earth would you want to encourage your 7yo to interact with potential strangers on line....

Even encouraging 7yo to message between themselves to me would be a no.

I certainly wouldn't ask at school either.

7 is too young for social interaction online. You will seem very irresponsible if you publicly request other people encourage their 7yr olds to interact online.

Ok, that's a no then. Thanks everyone for giving me a reality check!

Our school did a talk on Roblox last week, it's not just who they talk to, I was naive and thought if he only had connections to his own friends it would be ok.

It is so not ok!! there is a LOT of inappropriate content in the game because it's built and added to by unregulated developers - anyone, literally ANYONE can build a section of the game and make it available for kids to play/see.

I would suggest you google it and research it before you let her use it........

My 8 year old plays it under supervision. He chats to his sister on it (they don't see each other very often). He has had a few messages from people he doesn't know saying "Hi." We just delete them.

I agree with PP. The content is very unsuitable. My friend alerted me to a room that she found on her DD’s one that showed a weird bondage fetish room.

Okay, thanks. I'll delete the app.

Does anyone have any recommendations for similar things/games that are more appropriate for her? She's really enjoying it

Club Penguin is good.

What about Minecraft? There are different modes so your DD can play safely.
Yy to Roblox worlds. My DS10 plays it but in the living room on a large pc screen that I can see from most of downstairs .
There are lots of esafety resources out there. It is fairly easy to set privacy settings on your ISP too.

Hasn't Club Penguin closed down? Ds was most put out. I recall Moshi Monsters with great affection too.

Aww no has it? That's a shame, my son who played it is too old now and his wee brother has shown no interest in playing anything online yet. It was great too, DS1 loved it!

I work in education, and recently attended a Child Protection course (run by social workers). We were told in no uncertain terms that if our (own) children are on Roblox or Musically, we should get them off. These are playgrounds for paedophiles.
YABU.

My DDs (8 & 10) love the Toca Boca games on the Kindle. Toca City, Toca Nails etc. There are loads. No online element and very tame but they love it.

There is a safe setting on roblox for chat and play, if you engage it you won't have to worry about inappropriate content.

I agree 100% with the pp who said get your child to play in the living room where you can monitor them. Children are growing up with social media and online chat, and monitoring them online ensures they learn to deal with it correctly, and only talk to people they know IRL.

It is vital you teach your child to be safe online. Sites like club penguin are fully moderated, bots report suspicious comments to moderators who investigate. But there are people who know that who invites kids to then chat on other apps which aren't monitored. Always have your young child use the internet with you there, and regularly check their devices.
The best way is definitely to let them explore apps and games with you there to help them.

That sounds irresponsible

There is a safe setting on roblox for chat and play, if you engage it you won't have to worry about inappropriate content.

I thought this and had this setting switched on on DS iPad, but when I asked him whether he had still seen inappropriate content he said definitely and it's one of the reasons he stopped playing it.

You don’t need to delete it. Just monitor her usage.

My boys play on the Xbox so we can see what they’re playing. Occasionally they get messages from strangers which are ignored. It’s only a danger if you leave kids completely unmonitored.

My 10 year olds play it as an extension of Minecraft really. They are NOT allowed to engage/chat with anyone they don't know in real life. My son reports and blocks anyone who tries to message him. No phones (we live in a rural European country no public phones and kids have a 40 minutes school bus ride) or tablets allowed in the bedroom. They mostly watch the DANTDM/Ballistic Squid/Stampycat roblox videos on YouTube.

My son also became interested in roblox but random people were talking to him on there so we deleted it.