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submitted 2 weeks ago by simple@piefed.social to c/games@lemmy.world

From next month it will start enforcing facial age estimation to allow children to chat with strangers only if they are in their broad age group.

Roblox compared its new system to school cohorts such as elementary, middle school and high school. It will be introduced first in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, where children will be blocked from privately chatting with adults they do not know in real life from next month, and in the rest of the world in early January.

Users will be placed into the following groups: under nine, nine to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20, or 21 and over. Children will be able to chat only with others in their age group and similar ones. For example, a child with an estimated age of 12 will be able to chat only with under-16s. Images and video used for the checks would not be stored, Roblox said.

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[-] rtxn@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Problem: the game is getting a notoriety for being infested by pedophiles and the developers are actively protecting them.

Solution: send your photographs to the game infested by pedophiles to prove you are a real child!

Fucking. Incredible. If this was written in a manuscript, it would be tossed for being too cartoonishly unrealistic.

[-] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 2 weeks ago

Do you have a better idea?

[-] rtxn@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Absolutely! Multiple, in fact. In order of preference:

  1. Shut down the game, dissolve the company, and donate all remaining funds to a women's shelter.
  2. Prosecute groomers instead of banning and threatening the people who are trying to stop the fuckers and crying about vigilantism even when the proper reporting channels are used.
  3. Use AI for a beneficial purpose at least one goddamn time. Scan the text and voice communications (it's a public game, there is no expectation of privacy), flag suspicious exchanges for human review, then ban and report groomers.
[-] village604@adultswim.fan 4 points 2 weeks ago

Hiring moderators would be a good option too

[-] Eranziel@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

With what money? They only made $1.3 billion this quarter! Won't anyone think of the shareholders?!

[-] Naho_Zako@piefed.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago

Honestly, getting rid of any chat (voice/text) and DM features would would help. I don't think kids should completely lose online gaming, just make it almost impossible to communicate with anyone on said game. I played a shit ton of Mario Kart and Splatoon online as a kid, but neither of those games offer personal messages/chat features (unless you set them up via app), so I imagine grooming would be almost impossible.

I don't want to take Roblox away from kids, as I understand how fun it was growing up, especially if you can't afford a console/games at home. But chat has to be either heavily moderated, or just entirely removed imo.

[-] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Them having an office large enough to moderate in-game communications, on every popular language? They have some billions to spare. Serving kids requires a lot of work they have neglected for a very long time.

Facebook was a vehicle for hateful, genocidal messages in Myanmar, and they seemingly got of the hook having no person understanding local language on the market they occupied.

If Roblox primarily targets kids, they can't go without agressive moderation, psy-help on demand, things one would find obvious, but these are never required, not to say it's not that sexy as getting profits and cutting corners.

I don't know if their business model would be viable if they started things right from the beginning, but it would be more stressful to them to finally start doing something about that.

[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 14 points 2 weeks ago

From next month it will start enforcing facial age estimation to allow children to chat with strangers only if they are in their broad age group.

This is going to backfire spectacularly, what idiots.

[-] Carmakazi@piefed.social 6 points 2 weeks ago

Right on its face, is it even legal to collect head shots of minors? I know US privacy laws are a joke but there's usually some carve outs that protect minors.

[-] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 weeks ago

It's illegal to collect ANY data from children under 13. Facial scans are WAY worse than the anonymized use stats those laws were put in place to block

[-] meco03211@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

Can't protect them too much, though. Otherwise, how would the pedo-in-chief and his ilk get a fresh crop of sex slaves?

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

No, no. It makes perfect sense from an investment standpoint. Their actual target audience would love to be able to pay for access to that catalog.

[-] dil@piefed.zip -1 points 2 weeks ago

Ais gonna be like you look mature for your age putting ppl higher or lower

[-] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

See, what I figured out is that I don't have to let my son play Roblox. Sure, he might be the "weird" one who's dad doesn't let him. But he was going to be "weird" anyway. That's just how our lives work.

Plus you have AuADHD, having it myself, it makes you vulnerable to predators in ways you can't understand yet.

[-] kmartburrito@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Hey there's maybe tens of us! Hello fellow reasonable parent!

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world -1 points 2 weeks ago

FINALLY a good parent!

Please have more babies!

[-] peopleproblems@lemmy.world -1 points 2 weeks ago

I would happily have more babies as children are fun.

Unfortunately that requires a partner who values intelligence, child development, learning and desires children. When I find such a unicorn I'll make as many babies as I can reasonably raise (probably like 2 or three more maximum)

[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I don't allow my kids to play it. It sucks, but the reality is the game has been captured by pedos. I saw too many questionable things when I watched them play. Invariably they will be unsupervised at some point, even for brief periods, so it is not worth the risk.

[-] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

Recognized as [teen]

[-] atrielienz@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

By asking them to verify their age via selfie. We live in the worst time line.

[-] Broadfern@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

God forbid they just shut down the chat function??? Ffs

[-] nomorebillboards@lemmy.world -2 points 2 weeks ago

That would be stupid, many games rely on chat and aren't exclusively played by children

[-] MotoAsh@piefed.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

and? Why do you want to enable pedos?

[-] nomorebillboards@lemmy.world -1 points 2 weeks ago

This argument is just silly.

>Uses an iOS device

>Wants to be able to install third-party apps

>"Why do you want to be able to allow viruses?"

[-] MotoAsh@piefed.social 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

This isn't about sideloading. This is about adults mingling with children on Roblox. Interesting how you miss the point so thoroughly.

[-] nomorebillboards@lemmy.world -2 points 2 weeks ago

If this isn't bait, congrats, you just missed the entire point of the analogy.

While we're at it, let's remove commenting and posting from Lemmy for people that aren't administrators.

[-] MotoAsh@piefed.social 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

rofl you are beyond a pathetic joke. Congratulations on being a pile of shit so incapable of articulating a point. You are genuinely stupid beyond words.

[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

If Lemmy was a child's game and it was full of pedophiles actively grooming them then yes we would need to shut it down. Your analogy misses the point completely.

We're are dealing with a child's game where pedophiles are actively going after youth right now as we type.

They should be shutdown and charges pressed against the developers for allowing this. This is the only way forward at this point.

Your point about taking away chat ruining the game is also nonsensical. Only some RP would be affected and could be gotten around easily with a dialogue tree.

[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

You are correct, Pedophiles also play.

[-] TomMasz@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Brewchin@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

This. Imagine being a company who suddenly has to do the right thing simply because they can't afford the "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" approach any more.

Litigation may be an awful substitute for regulation, but at least its having some positive effect here.

Shame about the way they're doing it, though. It's a wet dream for politicians and activists in favour of age verification, and for the hackers who'll inevitability get their hands on all of it.

[-] Eranziel@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Not even "can't afford". They're rolling in money. They merely made the calculation that paying lip service to the problem (and farming their user base for even more data to leverage, count on it) could cost less than future lawsuits.

this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
23 points (100.0% liked)

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