If your child plays mobile games, then you’ve probably heard of Roblox, an insanely popular game among kids and teens, with 150 million monthly users (for comparison, Minecraft is played by 126 million users every month). Unfortunately, the game has attracted the attention of some bad people. Is it worth worrying about and how to protect the child in Roblox?
Like Fortnite and Minecraft, Roblox is a multiplayer game in which your child interacts with many other players. They can chat, which is anxiety for parents.
The game offers different content for users 7+ and for users 13+. However, it contains content that is undesirable for both categories. It is called “Condo games.”
What Are Condo Games in Roblox?
Roblox is positioned as a virtual world in which you can create anything. In this application, you can find thousands of mini-games created by players.
From time to time, complaints from parents appear on the Web, whose children are faced with imitation of sex in the game.
This dark side of Roblox is called condo games. In these games, the characters of users, including minors, run naked and imitate sex, and the players have lewd conversations. Sometimes these elements also appear in the usual popular Roblox games like Adopt Me!
Roblox has promised outraged social media users and parents that it will remove condo games. But parents can never be completely sure that their child is not in danger in the game.
Robux Is Another Danger
Almost no mobile game is complete today without in-app purchases. Roblox is no exception. The application uses a currency called Robux. With this currency, the player can customize his or her character, buy various items or get access to some options in games.
For example, there was a situation when an 8-year-old girl from Great Britain spend her mother’s $1,875. The funds were not returned to the family. Make sure your child does not purchase games without your knowledge.
Chat Rooms
In 2019, a British woman complained that a stranger had written her son in the game cruel messages. Then the woman turned off her son’s ability to write in chats, but later noticed a change in his behavior and found that he again corresponded with the attacker through a third-party application. The stranger forced the boy to send his photos.
Roblox prohibits sharing images, but some users bypass these prohibitions by downloading special applications.
How to Protect Your Child and What Does Roblox Do for This?
Roblox has released a special parenting guide that will help you learn all the ways to protect your children.
Check Out the Game and Settings
Go to the privacy settings in the app and choose who your child can communicate with – friends or no one. Here it is important to know people who are on the child’s friendliest. You can also limit people who can write to your child, and who can find the account by phone number. In the settings, you can restrict access to content 13+. Turn on PIN protection to prevent your child from changing the settings.
Teach the Internet Safety
Roblox tries to stop bullying and aggressive communication by using automatic filters in chats that recognize possible personal information (such as name and phone number) and forbidden words. Also, you cannot send pictures and videos in the chat. Tell your child not to share personal information at all.
Also, don’t let your child use Roblox-related third-party apps.
Published: Aug 29, 2021 11:59 am