222
Linux gaming is growing! The Roblox client Sober was downloaded 1.3 million times this year.
(lemmy.world)
Sober is exclusively available on Flathub, whom published these figures in their Year In Review: https://flathub.org/en/year-in-review/2025
Given the prevalence of predators on Roblox and the company's absolute ignorance of the issue, I have some concerns about your parenting here.
As long as he doesn't let the kid play unsupervised, I don't think there's a problem outside of using things that might be the result of child exploitation.
Good in theory but can you actually picture parents watching their kids play Roblox every time so carefully they don’t miss them talking with the wrong people?
I mean…that doesn’t sound remotely realistic
Correct. It's much easier to just set the chat controls to "no one".
https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/30428310121620-Parental-Controls-Overview
Also sounds good in theory but kids often want to play with their friends so good luck trying to isolate them like that
Plus, I’d put money at least 95% of parents aren’t going to want or be able to make comprehensive enough parental control schemes to do more than filter out violence and curse words, hardly effective against child exploitation
Plus with them basically shutting down the FBI…I’d say don’t let them play it at all
I don't care about what other parents do, I know what we do. The kids can chat as much as they want with their friends - outside of Roblox.
Good policy but unfortunately we all do have to care a little bit about what other parents do because they’re causing problems for society at large that we can all reasonably fix with smart policy
Supervision isn't sat down watching them the entire time. It's keeping an eye on them and monitoring what they are doing. And maybe have whatever they're playing on set up in a space that's easily viewable.
Well then there’s no realistic way to actually supervise what they’re doing in Roblox because you would have no idea they’re talking to creepy adults every single day for years unless you actually monitor them
It's much easier if you talk to your child. Who is that person? Are they a friend from school? What kind of things do they talk to you about? And so on. You don't need to be watching 24/7, you just need to be checking and also talking with your kid about things.
Aren't most of the games you can play there ultimately the result of exploited and unpaid child labor?
I started making my own games on an Atari ST at 12 years of age. Never considered the fun I had to be "exploited labor" when I let someone else play them.
Well, that's a bit different from the situation with Roblox. Check this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ
Is it most? I haven't seen the statistics.
Look any game aimed at children is going to have this issue. And trying to force the kid to never play the big game all their friends are almost certainly playing is a fool's errand. Best bet is to let them do so with supervision than to end up with a kid trying to play in secret on their phone or something.
Along with just... Talking to them about this problem and what to do if they encounter someone being creepy to them. Kids can be pretty smart if you help them and make it clear that they can come to you for that help.
not at all. it just needs moderation, something Roblox's leadership has actively decided against because the predators were buying enough Robux to make it a major financial hit to remove paedos from the platform...
I'm going to be honest: I have a hard time believing it's actually worse than on the kind if sites I used when I was a kid. The problem exists and they aren't doing what they could, but I get the distinct feeling the weird To Catch A Predator fad is blowing a real problem up into an impossible crisis. Much like what happened back when the show itself was airing.
Like I need to see some serious, hard evidence that's not just outrage.
I will fight tooth and nail for your right to freely show your stupidity online.
While I understand you taking offense at this reply, you can't really call them stupid when the issue of Roblox having predators and also the game itself promoting child work exploitation are both well documented issues that the makers of Roblox have been dodging instead of effectively addressing.
Of course I can call them stupid, since they without any information whatsoever as to the communication settings my kids have (none allowed) called my parenting into question.
It really doesn't get more stupid than that even.
You're making an awful lot of assumptions...
Don't worry they're implementing ai age verification with strict restrictions so you can only play with people that aren't your real age