Is Roblox safe?

[LittleCabbage]

A while ago, I (possibly naively) allowed my 8 year old to start playing on Roblox, but then did a bit of reading about it, and formed the impression that it wasn’t safe for children. I read that the following could occur:

• Random strangers entering the same “world” as my child and “chatting” with them.
• Characters appearing with visible genitalia
• “Bubbles” exploding and releasing pornographic images
• Sound recordings playing swear words or racial slurs

Following this, I deleted Roblox and encouraged my child to play Minecraft instead.

But it seems now that a lot of my child’s friends are allowed to play on Roblox. What is your experience of this game please? Are you happy for your children to play on it, and at what age?

They do play with strangers, yes. Not seen any of the other stuff. I consider it a safe environment for KS2 and up.

Do you not worry what the strangers might be saying to your child, or what information they might be trying to get your child to give out?

Well, no. Because 1) I have taught my kids internet safety, and 2) all computing is done in the sitting room under my eagle eye.

Your kids are going to interact with strangers on the internet at some point, so they have to learn how to do it safely. Up to you of course at what age they start learning this.

I think it's a bit iffy.
My DD played on it for a while, with strict rules about not friending or chatting. But a friend of hers had a very upsetting experience which involved someone impersonating a friend and sending multiple abusive messages. DD decided to delete the game herself and then told me about her friends experience and said she didn't want to play it anymore.

Similar to Beamur - a school friend added an unknown to their group and the unknown sent threatening messages. Terrified the girls and they have no interest in it anymore, understandably!

I take your point JeanBodel about teaching them internet safety, but I wouldn’t want them to be verbally abused, or told anything inappropriate in the first place, even if they know to leave the game immediately afterwards. I agree that they will need to interact with strangers at some point, but I suspect my 8 year old is not mature enough to handle this.

Beamur, that sounds v unpleasant.

There are parental controls which include disabling chat, although I think you have to sign in via the website for that.

There's some information for parents here: corp.roblox.com/parents/

I agree with others regarding general internet safety chats.

On the topic of general internet safety, make sure that a password must be entered before any payments are made if you have a card/paypal linked to your account as there is an in-game currency.

Thanks DickKerrLadies. I guess disabling chat would mean they can't chat to friends either?

I think there are safer ways to play online with friends.

Yes Beamur, I still don’t feel convinced to allow DC to play. I think DC’s friends’ parents are perhaps not fully aware of how it all works

My eldest plays on xbox so chats to friends using the voice chat anyway so I'm not sure, sorry.

I've never seen characters with genitals or any pornographic images. It would be pretty difficult to get around the word filter, it hashtags out many words.

I think it's quite safe, I make sure dd plays in the main room where I can keep a watch. I also regularly check her pm chats.

I've played a few games on it before, and I think to find unsuitable content you'd either have to go looking for games like that or be invited onto them by someone else. I can't see how they'd make it onto the main page.

You can disable chat except with friends. I had a serious chat with DS, who is actually a total captain sensible, so he was on board with me. Any friend requests, he shows me. We delete and block unless I have confirmation from the parent that it is their child.

I agree with @n00bMaster69 - my 8yo plays it, but I've got the parental controls set to max and keep an eye on him playing it. Not seen or overheard any weird and/or porn stuff.

Hmm, sounds as though the really worrying stuff is pretty rare then. And I do feel encouraged to know you can disable chat except for friends.

I still don't 100% trust my child not to accept friend requests without telling me (quite an impulsive child!) so will stick to Minecraft for now, but I appreciate other 8yos are more sensible, and I may allow it in a year or two.

Thanks for all the opinions/info given here, it's been v useful.

Roblox is odd because you can really find lots of scare stories about it online - MIL contacted me with several FB tales she'd heard about awful things happening. I wonder if that's because players tend to be younger? DS played it for several years starting from around age 8 - in the main room while I was present - and had zero issues. The odd little jerk saying something mean in chat, but you can get that on any game. He mainly played with friends, didn't accept random friend requests, often played alone too. I'd watch the payment option carefully.

Online grooming tripled during lockdown so I'd be extra careful for that reason as well. There are too many predators with nothing to do. Kids have too much time on their hands. Not a good combination.

If you're going to watch over his shoulder every time he plays, that's ok then, but who has the time to be doing that?

I've just let my 8 year old on Roblox. He has an under 13 account so is restricted to no chat function and very few of the games tbh. He gets random friend requests but he ignores them and I delete them and even if he did accept them I have the restriction on chat to cover 'friends' as well.

Is it safe, I think so. Is it a good game, no it's dreadful and I think the shine has already worn off and he's back on Minecraft.