https://www.dexerto.com/roblox/roblox-gets-banned-indefinitely-in-turkey-over-child-exploitation-2855423/
The Turkish government has blocked access to Roblox for users across the nation over concerns regarding “child exploitation”.
They exploit kids for free labor among other things.
https://www.eurogamer.net/roblox-exploiting-young-game-developers-new-investigation-reports
It's bad and it's kids. Like, the game is no better if you doin't aim it at kids, but the fact they intentionally employ child labor as a gamified device is just disgusting.
It's a game designed for kids with not enough moderation/limitations for a kids game. There's literal porn games if you look in the right places (called 'condo games')
Yeah, the other problem with these kinds of open-ended social games that are heavily aimed at children is that adults who want to exploit children will play those games for that express purpose.
Same issue with games like VRChat, and to a less extent, Fortnite.
And I could say at least Kamala doesn’t have all her political opponents locked up. I wouldn’t do that though because boiling a politician down to a single issue doesn’t make any sense.
Maybe not to you, but when 15,000 children have been murdered and an entire population is starving, then boiling a politician down to a single issue does make sense to me.
Typical American apathetic to genocide.
I’m not apathetic, I’ve actively contacted my representatives demanding a cease fire. I’ve donated for aid for Gaza. Considering what Erdogan has done to the Kurds I find you argument extra rich. By all means continue to act all self righteous when I will be the one who has to deal with the other guy if you keep carrying water for his campaign.
Would you have an idea about what they would care about? Like are they just virtue signaling hard? Why not?
Like I could see Russians or Chinese or Republicans pushing this point just to sow division on the Israel point. But why “tankies”? Maybe I should just google it
people claiming to care about Palestinians but then encouraging votes against them. Voting any way but for Harris will harm them and that's easy to reason through but they don't care. Ergo they do not give an actual flying fuck about any Palestinian, they just want to be seen as doing so.
You can do the right thing for the wrong reasons and this is a classic case. He’s an ethno-nationalist. Ask him how he feels about Kurdish minorities or the genocide of Armenians.
most people are focusing on the free labour roblox is extracting from kids but from the article:
Further claims stated, according to Turkish media, that Roblox hosted virtual parties promoting pedophilia and that “robux,” the platform’s virtual currency, was being distributed by bot accounts to encourage children’s involvement in these activities, and excess presence of gambling sites and their predatory tactics.
so it looks like roblox was banned because of bad moderation in regards to gambling and sexual predators, both of which are massive issues of the platform. overall i think this is a good move which hopefully will push roblox to do better.
It is the single most difficult thing as a parent to put my foot down about. Or it was at first.
My son LOVES watching the YouTubers playing the (horribly developed) games and enjoys making pretend games based on what he watches (some of it, sometimes we have to skip a video). He has a lot of friends at school that play it.
I will not let my son play it. Minecraft? Sure. Minecraft has a very different system, plenty of it crap, but it's much easier to supervise and much less exploitive.
But he does let me know that he feels left out when his friends play it and he can't. He doesn't have any siblings, so I understand how it's difficult to lack that connection to peers. He has other ways he gets to connect - mine craft, local playgyms, events for children, sports.
As a parent part of the empathy is feeling that sadness that comes from his disappointment in not being allowed to play it. But I think he has started to understand as he's gotten a little older, that adults making money off of what a kid makes isn't nice, or fair, or safe.
Turkey did well here. I don't think we'll ever have something similar in the states, but I hope regulation can come about eventually.
I straight up told my kid that he will not be playing that game. So you're not alone out there and you're doing well by taking an interest in your child's activity and monitoring them appropriately. I wish more parents would do the same.
If he likes the idea of making games, just find a playlist of Godot or Unreal 5 game building on youtube. Most of that stuff can be done low-code, and would be perfect for someone who wants to click around and make something. It can be frustrating at first… but if you find something that actually works, I bet it’d click
There's also a block coding plugin for Godot now too!
https://github.com/endlessm/godot-block-coding
Perfect tool to get kids into game creation.
Damn, superstar. Save some A++ parenting for other people! Seriously, you must be raising a top-quality person...
I wish. There are things we have been unable to change, even with the assistance of a couple of child psychologists.
When he gets upset with other kids, particularly when they break rules, he is absolutely convinced he needs to be the executive of the rules and often hits or pushes the other kids.
He was doing it before my ex and I separated. It only seems to happen during the summer at the day care program, so it's likely something more going on there.
Kids are still humans, and honestly I have to remind myself I'm doing the best I can. Because if I knew a better way to do things, I'd be doing that instead.
To me it's not about raising a superstar, it's raising someone who shares my values, and is capable of caring for themselves as an adult. Socializing and play is the most vital part of childhood development, so I do everything I can there.
Well put. I exaggerated, and not to minimize their issues, but the fact you clearly care and are willing to work at it makes me less worried for them.
All you can do is encourage good behavior/perspectives and discourage the bad. At some point, every child growing up will have to decide if they want to be like their parents or not. You're clearly doing great, just keep going! And take care of yourself as well...
Yeah the same conversations have occurred in my household. I think you made the right choice here. I'm a huge gamer myself and developer, not on Roblox. Usually if anything it's me being the lenient one when it comes to games in our home, vice my wife. This is one that I did not allow from day 1 regardless of the age of the kid. It was apparent to be a bad apple to me from my initial looks at it, and has only proven that point over the years. I can't imagine though how hard it is for most parents who are not entrenched in that industry to navigate decisions like that.
Roblox is just knockoff exploitative gmod. Only reason it keeps going is because its free to download.
More annoyed it hasn't been banned or sued under other consumer protection laws.
You are smoking crack if you think Roblox is a gmod knockoff, but everything else, unfortunately, yeah. I played Roblox in 2012 and it was pretty fun at 11 years old but the pay2win stuff was out of control even back then.
There were a few weird roleplay servers but back then it really just felt like "playing house" online, but the fact that anyone regardless of age could hop in at any time and send socials was fucking weird to me even as a kid.
It needs a serious rework of how the platform works if they want to continue marketing themselves as for children. The game has seen barely any safety improvements from what I've seen of current gameplay and mfs are wilin on the internet nowadays
This is actually about the "condos", private ERP instances where children are exploited for robux.
Lol when you agree with a ban that turkey made thats a strange day. Maybe a ban is a bit too much but roblox is shitty and they should be pressured to change... and this applies to most large companies
I've always thought roblox was dumb, but its kind of just a playground. Kids need a playground where their imaginations are free to grow and thy're in control. Somewhere they can interact and learn how to socialize safely with other children. When i was a kid, that was a walk to the park with friends to kick a ball around, riding a bicycle somewhere, exploring, and working out some dumb activities to do... Honest question: how comfortable are you with the idea of just letting your kids go to the park by themselves for hours on end?
For better or worse, it seems like sandbox creativity games like roblox are filling that void for some kids. Not saying roblox is an answer to a problem, just that kids seem to be utilizing it as a playground where they get to be creative and in control. Not sure why I'm bringing this up. It's just a thought that occurred to me recently.
Kids deserve to have games like Roblox, but they don't deserve to be exploited financially by them by child labour and gambling mechanics.
As always, the answer to child welfare is to prevent them interacting directly with capitalism and markets. Children should always be given a communist upbringing with free food, shelter, clothes, healthcare, education, and recreation.
FYI, Instagram was blocked in Turkey a few days before Roblox ban. Both are still blocked.
No. It isn't abouf if I personally liked these services or not. This is cencorship. Even my mail service proton is banned in turkey it's impossible to use the internet without a vpn here it's a cencorship state.
If they ban a service without a guideline off what laws the companies should abide or either not giving a national alternative is totally fucked but otherwise I hope more countries start to limit what big companies can do within their territories.
To Roblox: Being "child friendy" gives you controversies. You reap what you sowed.