Roblox fixes security system after lawsuit

photo by Brooke Dutton Fifth grader Scarlett Barfield plays Roblox to unwind after a long day of school.

Roblox, a popular online game, received a lawsuit in Louisiana from an attorney general stating that Roblox’s security systems are deeply flawed and need immediate attention, and they believe they need to fix this problem before even more kids get harmed.

“Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue and profits over child safety,” Attorney General Liz Murrill, who sued Roblox, said.

According to Murrill, the security systems that Roblox has in place are not enough to protect children from harm. Any online gaming company's number one priority should be a child's safety.

“In the past year, Roblox has introduced over 40 new features to protect its youngest users and empower parents and caregivers with greater control, including updated parental controls, stricter defaults for users under 13 and new content maturity labels,” Roblox said in their response to the lawsuit.

Roblox is trying to create new, safer features so that younger users won’t be as exposed to dangers, like bad language and images, within the program. These new features are said to ensure someone’s safety while playing on Roblox.

“Some people hack games where they can be other people, and then other people are sort of crazy just doing stuff with their avatar to other characters, or like hacking it to where they can kick other people,” senior Drew Haynes said.

Hackers have managed to get themselves to appear as another person and use that to cause harm. They would do so with the intention of bothering or provoking other players.

“Sometimes they play [games] and then realize it’s a bad game so we talk about it and decide if it’s a good idea to play that or not,” TKA parent Jackie Barfield said.

Roblox users can also create their own games, and anyone can play them, making it more dangerous for kids to play.

“I’ve had people tell me to turn on my chat, but I never have,” Haynes said.

In addition to people pretending to be someone else, some also try to convince other players to do something like turning their chat public, entering other games and privately messaging them.

“Because there is no age minimum and requirement to verify age or parental permission once you sign-up, users can easily say they are younger or older than their actual age,” Attorney General Liz Murrill said.

When Roblox was first launched, they created it as a gaming platform for kids, but that quickly changed when adults started joining. While most adults are just playing, there are still quite a few who hide behind the screen and pretend to be younger.

“Roblox started as a platform for children, and while 64% of the user base is now 13 or over, the platform has rigorous safety features built in,” Roblox said after receiving the lawsuit.

While the majority of Roblox users are children, there are still many who are adults and some who cause harm both intentionally and unintentionally.