Roblox should be stopped from manipulating kids

Complaining about kids being online is a bit like complaining that the water at Bondi is too wet.

Most of today’s teenagers have grown up surrounded by screens and devices since the day they were born. Online games are part of the landscape.

But today’s disturbing report on Roblox by education reporter Emily Kowal cannot be dismissed as old people yelling at the clouds.

Children are being systematically scammed by the online gaming platform and subjected to predatory practices that normalise gambling.

Compelling new research from the University of Sydney shows that elements of the platform are manipulative, and causing children harm.

Almost all the most popular games on the platform used deceptive monetisation, the research found, and almost half were non-compliant with Australian standards around payments for random items.

The findings are particularly grim because Roblox is not a fringe platform but a global juggernaut that is used by a large proportion of the nation’s young people, with most people aged six to 13 using it regularly.

Roblox is more widely used among kids than poker machines are among adults, yet is not subject to gambling laws because players cannot cash out Roblox winnings as real money, even though the psychological experience is similar.

“Play is almost entirely the friction to make you spend money,” says Professor Marcus Carter, who led the study. “Kids are constantly being peppered with pushes to spend … the whole gameplay loop is deeply ingrained with spending.”

Roblox, which has a PG rating, says it will take action if community standards are violated, and it pointed out that parental controls allow caregivers to set spending limits and block specific games on the platform.

Parents obviously have a central role and responsibility for the welfare of their children online.

But parents also know that asking them to police all their children’s online activities is asking a great deal.

Add into the mix a global company worth billions of dollars that is combining the bright, attractive designs of children’s cartoons with predatory marketing tricks honed by the gambling industry, and a parent’s task is nigh on impossible.

Roblox has rolled out some reforms, including age verification aimed at restricting its chat function to users of similar ages.

Users point out the benefits of the platform – it’s fun, social, creative and can play an important role in keeping people connected to each other, especially in the event of hard times such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The question for regulators, the government and the public is whether such good things need to be embedded with scams, hidden costs and marketing tactics that are designed to manipulate children.

The Sun-Herald believes they should not be.

There is no reason why, beyond the profitability of already-wealthy foreign-owned companies, children should be subjected to gambling-like tricks.

The Australian Classification Board is reviewing whether a mandatory minimum classification should be introduced for “massively multiplayer online social games” such as Roblox.

If the classification is changed, the millions of individual games and activities may have to be classified separately to restrict children’s access to some of the platform’s more unsavoury practices.

Roblox was carved out of the federal government’s social media ban because it is primarily a gaming platform, not a form of social media. This distinction needs to be examined.

The federal government has shown that it is prepared to press foreign-owned internet giants over issues that are important to Australians. Roblox shouldn’t be excused from that accountability.

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