It may be the biggest gaming platform in the world, but Roblox could not have had a worse week.
While the problem of adults preying on vulnerable children in the online space, potentially leading to real-world harm, is not new to Roblox, things ramped up dramatically this week with the banning of Schlep, a long-time Roblox community member who made a name for himself catching online predators within the game, and his work actually led to six arrests so far. He says that he himself was “groomed” in the game when he was younger, and it led him to do this work.
Roblox has now banned him, saying that “vigilantes” have at times created an “unsafe environment for users,” which many players took to mean the predators they were trying to catch. While that may not have been what Roblox was trying to say, the community blowback was immediate and forceful.
The same week, Roblox caught the eye of the Attorney General in Louisiana who announced she was suing the game for failing to protect children, and Roblox issued a lengthy rebuttal to the claims, detailing its various attempts and systems to keep children safe.
But what’s next, Chris Hansen showing up and telling people to take a seat? Well, about that.
There were seemingly hard-to-believe rumors that To Catch a Predator’s Chris Hansen was also going to throw a spotlight on Roblox, but Hansen confirmed the project on social media on Friday. He said he has been speaking with law enforcement, victims and working with people like the banned Schlep on the upcoming airing of the completed investigation. Though no, it’s unlikely they’ll be virtually trapping people like his old show.
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
Roblox stock is down 9% this past week alone in the wake of all this, and now, it’s just issued a bunch of new safety updates trying to prune some of the problems away. That includes blocking users under 17 from Social Hangouts in private spaces. Those would be:
- “Enclosed spaces designed for activities that are personal and secluded (eg. sleeping, changing clothes, bathing)”
- “Enclosed spaces designed for one person or for a very small number of people (eg. Bathroom stall, bedroom, small tent)”
And yes, before you ask, there are countless virtual sexual things that do in fact go on in those kinds of spaces, hence why these rules are now being enforced in the first place. There are more changes laid out here, and CEO David Baszucki made a lengthy YouTube video about them (which unsurprisingly, has more downvotes than upvotes):
Given how long-running this problem has been, and the sheer size of Roblox, which has more active users than the entire Steam PC ecosystem, it’s very clear this is not the last we’ll hear of such problems, no matter what changes are made. But these latest situations, the bans, the lawsuits, the uh, Chris Hansen shows, are all still ongoing and we’ll have to wait and see what comes from them.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
