Roblox - Adopt Me - Captured?

[RightsHoarder]

I spotted a 'free pin' board on Adopt Me yesterday.

Children can grab an Ace, Intersex, Pan, Aromantic, Demi, Trans pin and wear it while playing.

Can't load photos for some reason. Will try and add the screenshots in the comments.

Don't know what to say.

Still won't let me add pics. Says I have no photos to add.

Roblox has come up before on here:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4228072-Roblox-gender-identity-and-safeguarding

loads of other issues - I banned it in our house:

www.bbc.com/news/technology-48450604

www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/roblox-warning-primary-school-child-7042884

www.vice.com/en/article/4axxdn/leaked-documents-how-roblox-moderates-content-mass-shootings-grooming

The thing with Roblox is players can make games within the game, lots of customisation options and opportunities to write code - for a parent it’s almost impossible to navigate in terms of what content your child could see and whether it’s age appropriate (probably not).

theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/09/the-trouble-with-roblox-the-video-game-empire-built-on-child-labour

Thank you for the links. I'll have a look. Worrying.

Very worrying since it's used by a lot of young kids

Adopt Me has been banned in the Netherlands and Belgium.

progameguides.com/roblox/players-are-losing-access-to-certain-roblox-experiences-as-country-specific-laws-are-tightened/

Looks like the Netherlands ban is to do with their online gambling laws?

Players buy a ‘loot box’ but don’t know what it contains until it’s opened (bit like a virtual blindbag toy eg LOL dolls).

Netherlands sees this as gambling because some of the contents are more valuable than others (in game? Or can be sold to other players for actual money? I have no idea!) and gambling obvs is not suitable for children.

This is what I mean re: age appropriate-ness being extremely hard to ascertain in Roblox - clearly gambling is not age appropriate but presumably not all nations have laws that recognise in-virtual-game-play like this AS gambling.

Which is obvs worrying for developing brains/mental health. We have age restrictions on gambling (because kids aren’t exactly known for making wise decisions or having much impulse control?)

Roblox is dodgy as fuck, I wouldn't let my kids play it.

Players buy a ‘loot box’ but don’t know what it contains until it’s opened (bit like a virtual blindbag toy eg LOL dolls).

I remember proposals to include loot boxes in gambling legislation in the UK being discussed on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours a while ago, but I don't think anything's happened since. (The gaming and gambling industries are very good at schmoozing MPs, surprise surprise.) Back then it was Fortnite that was the culprit IIRC.

www.theguardian.com/games/2021/apr/24/in-the-game-i-knew-myself-as-hannah-the-trans-gamers-finding-freedom-on-roblox

Just a reminder that the Guardian gushed over this person playing "mother" to children and teaching them to be trans....

Holy shit! Shocking.

Thanks for all the info. I'll have a read of the links. Luckily my daughter mostly builds her house for hours in adopt me, and doesn't interact with many people. I'm also fully conversant in it all as I play which helps me monitor her.

Yesterday she spent 2 hours designing and building a utility room in her new house.

I have come across some dodgy bits before but this seems so subtle and normal, just grabbing a little badge. I don't think anyone can add into Adopt Me unless it's their house so this must have been the designers.

That Guardian article! That's AGP without a doubt which is not the same as trans.

Is there anything now that isn't an attempt to groom children?

Don't think so

I play Adopt Me it is very LGBT friendly you can get pins and flags for various identities and sexualities but they aren't pushed on you and if you don't know what they are it doesn't explain. A lot of players have the trans flag in their houses which suggests there are a lot of trans players; I can see why as you get to dress up as a little fashion doll. I was a bit worried about the dynamics of players taking the role of babies/parents in relation to one another but I've tried doing both and it's just been normal gameplay. Communicating with other players is practically impossible as it's hard to type messages and almost all players have the attention span of a gnat and will be long gone before you've got to the end of your sentence. Adopt Me also censors any swear words... actually it sometimes seems to be most words! I play with my child I feel like I should add! 😂

I do find it a bit troubling that a player might be getting off on the fact that they are getting looked after as a baby by a mummy that is a young child player but there is no harm to the other players who are oblivious- i suppose you can't avoid this with any multiplayer role play game.

Thank you @TheClogLady . I had wondered why but hadn't got around to googling it yet. DS has since informed me that all the other games with loot boxes have been blocked too.

@SomeonesRealName yes I agree it's not pushed but it seems so strange to have intersex as a pin, aromantic... I know adults play too, I do, but it is a child's game primarily and i don't think it's appropriate.

I suspect there are no child’s games anymore. Everything is full of adults and nothing is subjected to any kind of safeguarding scrutiny or developmental stage appropriateness.

Tech has betrayed our children (which is why it was interesting to see that the Netherlands still has some sort of standard even if it’s to do with gambling rather than inappropriate adult sexual identity themes).

Oh 100% it has. Adults have money to spend too so it's not going to change.

I'm sure that's what's driving it the adult players are the ones spending money buying Robux.

Fits a particular stereotype...

What annoys me about these sort of articles where they say "now as a woman I can wear florals and pinks, whereas as a I man I only wore black and grey". Err you could as a man, there's a lot of pink or floral masculine clothing available.

Why the fixation on such strict gender binaries/stereotypes?

As a mother of a fairly gender conforming, averagely masculine son in his 20s who absolutely loves colourful clothes (especially yellow, pink and purple) I concur - floral shirts and pink shorts etc for men aren’t even considered unusual anymore, a quick look at trashy reality tv such as TOWIE/Love Island etc will confirm!

This is a good thing for everyone except those who are personally invested in consciously performing an outdated sex stereotype.

Roblox can be very dodgy and as a parent you have to be on the ball and make sure to be tuned in what your DC are playing, especially if your DC are fairly young. Adopt Me seems to be the gateway game for many new players and I do think it's probably targeted by adults precisely because it's gets a lot of "noobs". It reminds me of the Penguin game that used to be around in the past.

One thing I am uncomfortable with is that a lot of the description above avatars have their pronouns listed. This worries me because why announce what they are as it's a safeguarding issue (most players, especially the younger ones, presumably just have pronouns related to their bio sex) and it normalises pronoun use amongst children.

Having said that, my DC do play on Roblox and so do I, sometimes. My DS has been playing for years and has acquired friends online that he plays with on a regular basis but they have no clue about each other's sex, age etc as it's all about the game and collaborative play.