F
The influence of this platform is massive. It's hard to say anything about the content since it changes quickly and is a kind of free-for all ... and use-created which the owners hide behind to avoid really screening or moderating much at all. But more than moderation to ban words or guns or whatever, the way it's all monetized incentivizes making games that are edgy to get people on your game and earn robucks.
And then there are the ads.
Then there is the role of discord in making some of these problems worse.
I shudder to think about what is happening in secret discords at any moment. The privacy of these online spaces can make them very dangerous.
It makes me really sad because the internet can be a magical fun place for young people. And it is understandable that kids would be excited to make games for each other and have a popular game that thousands of people play and talk about. Or even just be on the leader board as the winner of some online gaming contest.
But the space is under-moderated so of course some of these young people have tried to fix it by doing the moderation themselves.
Of course such stings are touchy things, and roblox hates it. They ban him and all of this kids fans ... who see him as the only person who cares about the problem (and they might be right about that) are furious.
This is what I mean about it being messy.
Another messy ugly online space is kick.
It's wild to me that tiktok gets attention but kick, roblox are just somehow fine.
And roblox is worse because it's "made for kids" which means that parents let their guard down more.
Basically a young man, who grew up using roblox was frustrated because there are a LOT of people joking about being child predators on there as well as actual child predators. The joking 4chan like atmosphere enables these things by making it totally unclear to a child what is "normal" It would be easy for a child to think that such things are edgy and cool and some kids have been lured, hurt in real life.
So this young man starts running pedo stings. To catch the people doing it.
Is the user-made Roblox game "too sexual" for teens? Was a user being exploitative? These aren't things you can solve with an automated filter or AI. It takes real time and attention of adults who can make level headed calls about where the line is in each case.
It also takes effort spent to model good community norms.
Instead a lot of young people have been left unsupervised in a fake online casino where "success" is earning a fake currency by making shock content.
That said. Where does this all end? Very little about Roblox makes it sound like the kind of place where young people can be safe and have fun online. I've brought this up before, but for all of the laws passed to "protect children" and all of the energy spent talking about online safety no one seems sincerely invested in making healthy online spaces.
I think that's because the only way to do that is with *human* moderation.
This story has been bubbling on the side for some time it involves a lot of complex topics. The best run-down I've seen is from "Legal Eagle"
But I'm just glad that Ro Khanna is taking it seriously. Because most people are just rolling their eyes because ... well it's *roblox*
For young people following this issue it's very important and they are deeply upset and legitimately in many ways.
It sounds like a circus of an issue but I think ignoring it could be a mistake.
I posted this before but it's such a good video if you want to know what this was like:
NYC HS kids are the best in the world.
Are you sad you missed the scavenger hunt today? Well you can go on it with Matthew (recent sty grad) by watching this video. He only has like 100 subscribers, but the video is really good.
They put them in the air when they are MAD.
"Crematogaster" literally means "heart tush"
Normally I enjoy lifting rocks. But I think I will just put this one back as it was.
Will no one stop her!
I didn't dig that deep. It seems like there are a lot of on-going theories, strange in-group jargon and even intra- community "drama" between people who make videos and post about this stuff (can you imagine making a video about Meghan Markle every week for all this time? They never stopped? It's like finding a place where the flow of time is frozen!)
They have "sides" and hate each other and are constantly fighting.
I bumped into them because they are following the Epstein case due to Albert settling out of court with one of the victims.
Which is one of a dozen reasons that issue draws more attention than anything else the sheer number of connections makes. It's very explosive as a story.
This also kind of sucks for the victims.