If you are a parent to a child within a specified age group, there is a good chance that you have encountered the Roblox game at some point in the recent past. As a parent, one could easily be misled into believing that a gaming platform that positions itself as a “platform for the imagination” would be reasonably secure for their child to traverse.
This presentation might make it seem like a hospitable environment, however, recent research conducted by CybersafeKids indicates that children are coming across damaging content online that distresses or annoys them. For primary-aged children, the game Roblox is commonly identified as one of the key places where they encounter such content.
Delving deeper into Roblox can explain why. Originally, the aim of the game was for kids to explore their creativity by constructing their own virtual universes, but it’s not consistently as benign as it might initially appear. Between games that involve pretending and pet training, there exists content with a more sinister tone that parents wouldn’t want their children to have unlimited access to.
The threats posed by zombie swarms seem trivial in comparison to the content potential exposure if you neglect to monitor closely what (and with whom) your children are engaging with. So, how can parents respond to this? There are two potential methods. The first, a more severe measure, is eliminating the game from every gadget accessible to the child and directing them towards safer alternatives like Minecraft.
The second option involves implementing some of the inbuilt parental controls in Roblox. By standard, Roblox limits content and features relative to the birth date used during account setup. If an account is being set up for a child, the game will ask for the addition of a parent’s email address to create a Parent PIN for content management and to prevent any unauthorised alterations.
Once the above is taken care of, you are set. The primary course of action would be to establish age controls, these can be located under My Settings -> Parental Controls.
Roblox, a digital platform that attracts millions of young users, does have its darker elements. The platform divides content into several sections: all ages, which is as it sounds; 9+, that is deemed appropriate for children aged nine years and above; 13+ for the slightly older user; and finally, 17+, the space for content that touches on more mature subject matter involving intense violence, a considerable amount of realistic blood or gore, scenes of romance, the appearance of alcohol, modest vulgarity, and simulated gambling. To gain entry to this, evidence of age is required through a government-approved ID.
Privacy Settings is the second place to check. Here, you can choose to enable or disable specific features in Roblox like player communications. You have the option of applying account restrictions to limit the gameplay to only all ages suitable experiences. However, some features can be individually blocked, thus maintaining others.
Under Communications, there’s an option to only allow direct messages from friends or completely turn it off, preventing your child from receiving any unwanted messages. You have the power to restrict in-game chattings as well. Regrettably, it only offers the choices of either chatting with everyone or no one; there’s no way to limit it strictly to friends. Voice chats can be disabled – which is recommended – and you can have control over who can view your activities or invite you to their personal servers.
One also needs to regulate in-app purchases; you can set a monthly limit on how much your child can spend on virtual currency within the platform. Starting with zero Robux is advisable unless you want to find yourself regularly emptying your pockets into Roblox’s funds.
Despite all these safeguards, it is essential to frequently monitor your child’s online activities. Roblox’s idea of ‘suitable for all ages’ might not correspond with your discretion about what should be exposed to your young child, thus constant supervision remains paramount.
It’s prudent to establish a set of guidelines defining the appropriateness of online actions, such as initiating conversations with unknown individuals through messaging platforms or approving contact additions without seeking an adult’s permission.
Should this prove tiresome with few tangible benefits, there remains a drastic solution: completely erase the account, remove the application and trust in the child’s short-term memory regarding the game.