Of course it would be all grandstanding and nothing will be fixed, but I am really surprised they are missing out on "owning" one of the more shady tech companies.
…instead I dragged out a bunch of old Xbox 360/One games and let him enjoy a world free of microtransactios, casino inspired skill trees and loot boxes, and weird sex predators.
At first he resisted, then he fell in love with Portal and Command and Conquer and forgot about Roblox.
I feel bad for kids now that are just getting sucked into these engagement hacked “games”. No fun.
I keep reading all these problems regarding gaming, but what people forget to include is that all these problems are about *multiplayers gaming*.
There is a whole giant universe of single player games out there that's beautiful and free from dark patterns. And a small universe of couch coop games.
Roblox arguing that it's not exploitative is a reasonable thing (I don't agree, but it's not a ridiculous argument). Arguing that it's a "gift" when they're taking a 75% cut is just offensive.
So many years wasted in school not paying attention because no interest in given subjects at the time. But since they didn't pay me, it wasn't technically "exploitation".
There's very little in school that isn't directly applicable. Like, not even just "it's good to be a well-rounded human", but you can literally directly apply almost everything you learn to your craft.
It seems like you are implying the reason we do stuff is to make money, or at least the main motivating factor for you, or you believe it is for most people.
I started working in a factory when I was about 13 casually, and by 14 I was putting in enough hours for my technical apprenticeship.
During those years I did get paid, and I was thankful for it, but I definitely wasn't doing it for the money, and I was still going to school and then to college in parallel.
I'm sure things are different these days. It just makes me sad to think personal progress is somehow conflated with earning money.
With regard to the article. I think given what we know about social networks and young minds, it's already been shown to be a toxic mix. Getting kids on the capitalistic treadmill so young seems extremely cynical and it really does concern me.
Sure, they get value out of it (I guess?) but the platform makes money off of it, and the creator does not.
Roblox could work that way too, and if kids today are anything like kids when I was one, there would still be a ton of content created regardless of compensation.
I think it's good that Roblox pays out. They don't have to.
But I'd never be stupid enough to call it a "gift" in the presence of a reporter. Where was the PR minder??
Not if you can't get past the 50-step impossible Arkose captchas they show to third-world countries, ones that require you to actually be a robot to get past them with 0 mistakes.
They're also intentionally blocking Linux support, which is growing fast in the global south due to the growing hardware demands of Windows. They allowed Linux for a while, but now they want people to run their new kernel-level anticheat
https://www.eurogamer.net/roblox-studio-boss-children-making...
Ideological consistency is difficult.
[1] To be fair, my belief in this may also come from the Christian background of Europe.
BTW the lesson plan for chocolate asks students to design a new chocolate bar. Choose the ingredients and design a wrapper. The students/players can then vote on their favorite design etc.
[1] https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-resources/teachi...
For children in the developed world their Roblox earnings are likely non-essential. If they don't want to work on Roblox mods, or whatever they do, then they just won't. Forcing your child to work on Roblox would be straightforward abuse same as any other kind of abuse.
For children in the developing world - perhaps there are some for whom Roblox development is mandatory. But, would that child be better off if we deprived them of Roblox? Wouldn't they just work somewhere else in worse conditions in a career with less of a future?
I don't see why kids earning money from Roblox is bad. The efforts to criticize it strike me as pattern matching. Child labor = children working in coal mines or as chimney sweeps = bad. Kids making Roblox games for fun is child labor therefore kids making Roblox games is bad. Doesn't strike me as a compelling argument.
Yes.
> The efforts to criticize it strike me as pattern matching. Child labor = children working in coal mines or as chimney sweeps = bad. Kids making Roblox games for fun is child labor therefore kids making Roblox games is bad.
Only if it really is something the child is doing for fun. In many cases, I don't believe it is. Please see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ. I apologize for linking a relatively lengthy video, but this one really shaped how I feel about Roblox.
This is in fact the same basis for why we ban children working as chimney sweeps. I'm sure many children do have fun sweeping chimneys on occasion—I can certainly remember a time when I thought it was fun to wash windows—but add payment to the mix and it generally devolves into something else.
But is it really so clear that a child not working is somehow a better outcome than a child not being hungry and being able to provide shelter for themselves?
A 12-Year-Old Sued Roblox and WON https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dff7sHUzDww
There is a girl in my neighborhood who is constantly making and selling things door to door. I've bought a bracelet, cookies, and slime from her. Is this wrong? She's probably 10-12 years old and, I assume, earning less than minimum wage. Should I call the police? Child protective services? Do we need a law to stop her from doing this?
I would say that it isn't wrong for children to do things like this. It's behavior driven by the child that isn't harmful and might be beneficial. Why should you want to stop that? Same logic applies to Roblox.
This entire economy is unnecessary. I love that roblox allows anyone to learn/make/distribute, but the f2p nature of the game makes it slimy in a way that others are not.
> Third-party developers on Roblox are paid in Robux, the platform’s in-game currency
> user can buy 1,000 Robux for $12.50 but can cash out 1,000 Robux for just $3.50
> 15 years old, in Indonesia, living in a slum, and then now with just a laptop, I can create something, make money
> we wanted to be a resource for legislators as they start thinking about laws
Probably there are already laws, but by my side there is even something of greater value than those laws, and it tells me that you're a piece of shit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truck_Acts
As for revoking children's right to toil, it took a lot longer.
I think one the problems is that it's quite difficult to identify where a child is choosing to "work", and where a child has been coerced into the activity. There's a reason why we have a concept of ages of consent, where a child cannot consent to certain things, because their brain has failed to develop sufficiently yet in order to either understand the implications of their choices, or to understand whether this is actually their choice, or one that has been bestowed upon them.
