Simulated sex in Roblox or other video games can serve as a type of “gateway porn” for children.

(Information I shared with Wall Street reporter Julie Jargon for her piece about Roblox.) However, when the age disparity is more than two years, professionals begin to suspect that the “play” has become harmful sexual behavior. “Playing doctor” between young children of similar ages-for example, two four- or five year-olds, is considered normal and non-sexual. However, consider how kids “playing doctor” in an online game is not a safe way to explore their sexuality. It’s been suggested that letting kids explore their sexuality through online games is akin to “playing doctor”-an activity where young curious kids look at each other’s private parts. And there’s no age verification to stop your young child from entering one of these games, unless parents have made the effort to designate a white list of acceptable games (see more about parental controls below). “Condo games” and digital strip clubs filled with simulated hard core sex acts, raunchy talk and potential predators have infiltrated Roblox. Some Roblox games can be a gateway to pornĪlthough Roblox is designed for kids ages 8-18, there are no age limits. These solutions are technically easy, but would limit Roblox’s explosive growth and profitability. Or allow only trusted developers to upload gaming content. For example, it could implement a review system for games similar to Apple’s App Store. Roblox could take steps to police its content and protect its young users. The fact that most of the games are “ user generated content”makes them difficult to review for sexual content on Roblox.The endless novelty of new games make playing Roblox even more addicting for the human brain, which rewards novelty with more shots of dopamine.Why is this harmful for kids? Two reasons:

It’s like YouTube for video games, Roblox-style. It’s a platform of 20 million games-mostly created by different users and uploaded to the site. Roblox is not just one game developed by one responsible company.

5 red flag warnings of sexual content on Roblox #1.

Is roblox plus safe