Content Warning: This article contains mention of predatory behavior towards children, the alleged grooming of minors, and accusations of sexual misconduct involving children.

While Roblox is seen by many as an innocent game made for children, it's become a platform marred in controversy. By encouraging a young audience to refine their skills in game development so that they can make their own games on the platform and earn money, Roblox is a powerful tool for encouraging creativity among younger generations, making it a beloved game that manages to not only be entertaining but also serve an educative purpose. But as a platform in which children and pre-teens interact with real-life currency, Roblox’s unethical choices become apparent.

Roblox has generated significant controversy in the years since its release, principally over the safety of its players and how developers of these games are paid. While in 2020, Roblox developers received $250 million for their work, making money by creating content within the platform can be difficult. Another problem with the platform is how purchasing popular items in the Avatar Shop can involve actual gambling, with players having to study the statistics of the variation of an item’s price to spend fewer Robux. The lack of for managing work relationship problems, such as harassment and unfair working dynamics, has also proven a key point of controversy for Roblox.

Roblox Uses Problematic Methods To Pay Developers

Roblox Developers Struggle To Profit From Their Games

The controversy surrounding developer profits in Roblox comes partly from the high cut of their wages that the platform takes. This cut is aggressive compared to others like Steam and Epic Games, leading to accusations of Roblox exploiting young developers. According to the official Roblox website, for each dollar the company makes, divided between several other company costs, creators only make 29 cents.

Developers are also not guaranteed to have their games d on the platform unless they pay a certain advertising fee. Considering the near-impossibility of transferring a game made on the platform onto another online store, these small wages make Roblox an unreliable way to make money creating games.

Developers are also paid in the Roblox currency, Robux, instead of using real-world currencies. Figures like Quintin Smith, from the People Make Games YouTube channel, have compared this system with company scrips, which have been banned in several countries, including the United States.

Much like company scrip, Robux is a form of currency that can be used by workers only to buy products from the company they work for (in this case, items like outfits from Roblox), and are nearly worthless when converted to real-world currency. While this can be seen as another way to incentivize children to create games and buy assets for themselves, it is an unfairly exploitative system.

Roblox’s Avatar Shop Can Encourage Gambling

Roblox's Cosmetics & Casino Controversies

Many online games have accessories stores in which players can buy their characters new outfits and other decorative assets by spending real money on in-game purchases. Roblox functions much in the same way, with players being able to access several servers run by the platform and pick out accessories from an in-game store to make their characters more fashionable so that they stand out from the other blocky models on the same server. Although this seems much like how microtransactions in GTA Online, Fortnite, and other games work, Roblox’s in-game store has been the focal point of many controversies about the platform.

The in-game store in Roblox functions similarly to the one in Fortnite, with players exchanging real money for the online currency to acquire the desired items. The principal controversy comes from a different feature that makes it possible for the company to not only sell assets costing hundreds of dollars, but also encourage players to gamble to acquire certain items. In Roblox, the prices of limited collectibles in the Avatar Shop vary depending on how many players acquire them, while in Fortnite, the prices of the bizarre crossover skins and other accessories available for purchase remain the same throughout all versions of the game.

This system functions similarly to the stock market, with the platform offering players a price chart they can use to study the inflation periods of the item’s price. This is a controversial feature of the online shop, given that players are encouraged to gamble and study different odds of acquiring desirable items without spending too many Robux. In the same way that lootboxes have received controversy for introducing gambling to young players, this system is troubling. Considering how young Roblox’s usual players are, this mechanic is actively forcing them to interact with an activity they shouldn’t be partaking in.

In 2023, a group of parents filed a class-action lawsuit against Roblox, alleging that it had knowingly allowed their children to gamble on third-party sites using Robux as currency. The case is still ongoing in the California court system, according to an April 2021 article by The Verge.

Roblox Has No For Content Moderation

Roblox Does Little To Prevent Players From Accessing Mature Content

While many were concerned over Roblox easing its chat restrictions, the moderation problems within the game have been another focal point of controversy. One of the most important aspects of creating safe spaces within servers is moderation, which is helpful in preventing the dissemination of hate speech, violence, and general obscenity on a given platform. This becomes even more important when considering younger players, with the games’ moderation needing to prevent players from interacting with any content over the age restriction, something that has seen inconsistent success. Roblox’s repeated dismissal of deep problems of harassment in its community, especially among content creators, has been actively endangering its player base.

One of the biggest problems in Roblox’s moderation concerns the work relationships between content creators, with young developers partnering to make games. Although this can be a positive experience, it's also an example of how unsafe Roblox can be for children. Since interactions within creative teams can occur outside the platform, many instances of harassment or unfair treatment won’t be moderated. This is problematic considering that Roblox functions as a work environment and can also endanger the developers. When combining a longtime culture of trying to preserve a reputation within the game with a lack of proper moderation supervising developers’ interactions, Roblox’s work environment can become toxic quickly.

In 2024, after repeated inquiries from reporters investigating another controversy (see below), Roblox did announce changes to some of its content moderation policies. It began to restrict players under the age of nine from accessing games that might contain certain mature content, defined as anything "more unsettling than mild violence and unrealistic blood" by the Bloomberg Big Take podcast.

Roblox Allegedly Struggles To Keep Predators Away

Roblox's Moderation Problems Continue

Issues with moderation are apparently a recurring problem for Roblox, as a July 23, 2024, article from Bloomberg reports that predators frequently use the platform to interact with children. According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Roblox reported 13,300 cases of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2023, showing a steady increase in that statistic since 2019.

Although Roblox is moderated, it allows for total anonymity, which can be exploited by bad actors. The Bloomberg Big Take podcast recounts a case in which the creator of the popular Roblox game Sonic Eclipse Online, Arnold Castillo, was exposed for sending inappropriate messages to a 12-year-old girl. His was banned, but his game remained active, and he was able to re the platform under a different name.

Soon after, Castillo began communicating with another child, whom he eventually coerced into running away from home to live with him. He was eventually arrested for, pleaded guilty to, and is currently serving 15 years in prison for “Transportation of a Minor with Intent to Engage in Criminal Sexual Activity” and “Coercion and Enticement of a Minor."

Bloomberg ed Roblox chief safety officer Matt Kaufman, who claimed that such cases are outliers, not the norm. He cited the millions of people who have safe, positive experiences on Roblox every day as proof. Since Castillo's arrest, the company has hired two new child safety investigators, has a new moderation team devoted solely to child exploitation, and has banned s under the age of nine from playing certain games. An anonymous Roblox spokesperson also said that the company has a "robust pipeline" of new safety features.

Since 2018, police in the US have arrested at least 24 people for abducting or abusing people they had met on Roblox.

However, as current and former employees told Bloomberg, Roblox allegedly prioritizes player base growth over individual player safety. They claim its AI-run auto-moderation filter does a poor job at picking up on keywords in chat that suggest grooming, and in fact didn't even include the word "grooming" until 2022. Former trust and safety employees also allege that their requests to higher-ups for more resources were ignored. Meanwhile, Roblox players on YouTube and community Discord servers have attempted to raise the issue, to little effect.

There are many reasons why Roblox can be good for its generally young audience. However, these controversial issues have led to great concern about the future of the game and the safety of Roblox’s millions of active s - especially the younger ones. In the over 15 years since its original release, the platform has gone through many changes in how it works. If Roblox is going to continue to grow, it needs to place greater emphasis on valuing the players and developers that use it.

Sources: Roblox, People Make Games/YouTube, The Verge, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Big Take