That little game your kids like to play, Roblox, has hit 90 million users as of this week. The company is worth more than 2 billion dollars and has expanded globally to add more than twenty million users over the past six months. Roblox is a gaming “platform” more than a game, giving users the ability to create their own levels and share them with others who play the game. When you log in to Roblox you see a list of user-generated levels that you can play. You join with other users and try out the different games which include combat, stealth, mazes, puzzles, and sometimes just overall silliness. Some of the user built levels are just places to hang out and meet new people.
Roblox has been considered social gaming from the beginning. The entire platform is designed around allowing users to share their content within the game. This requires you to meet new people and possibly even chat with them in order to fully enjoy the game. When you first log in you see multiple games listed that you can choose from. Most of the starting games are curated by the developers but once you start meeting new people you can be invited to their creations and who knows where you’ll end up at that point. This is the concern for many parents when it comes to Roblox.
What Parents Should Know
I played a bit of Roblox recently and could definitely see the appeal. The user made levels are pretty neat and very elaborate. I played a silly banana game, tried a “Wipeout” style obstacle course, and played around in a world of puzzles. Really there is no limit to the amount of fun you can have in the app, the only guideline is imagination. This is a great thing for kids as long as the community rules are followed in the way they are supposed to be.
There are parental controls available and their password protected but they could hinder some of the options in the game. It is intended to be played in a public and sharable social setting. There have been instances when people have abused some of the settings in the app to perform inappropriate behavior in the game. This will always be a possibility when a game is meant to be so extensively social. There is also no age verification which means you can claim to be whatever age you want when you create your account. I created a 13-year-old girl, just to prove the point.
Roblox is on my uninstall list because of the social nature of the game. There aren’t really any alternatives that work exactly like Roblox but there are games that will let you craft and build and get creative while staying offline. Games like Toca Builders (Android/iOS)can give you the building features while Toca Life World (Android/iOS) is a game made for older kids that gives a safer environment to explore and play in a world they create on their own. With 90 million users, Roblox has a lot of people creating games and communicating with the kids that are playing. Being careful that your kids can’t just talk to random strangers online is one of the most important things we can do to protect them.
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