Zoe Kleinman & Georgina Hayes
Technology publisher and journalist
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Roblox has experienced dazzling growth among young players
Parents who do not want their children to Roblox should not let them use it, said the general manager of the gigantic game platform.
The site, the most popular in the United Kingdom among young players aged eight to 12 years, was hampered by affirmations of certain children exposed to explicit or harmful content thanks to its games, alongside several reported allegations of intimidation and grooming.
But its co-founder and CEO Dave Baszucki insisted that the company was vigilant to protect its users and stressed that “tens of millions of people have” incredible experiences “on the site.
When they were asked what his message was to the parents who do not want their children to the platform, Mr. Baszucki, said: “My first message would be, if you are not comfortable, do not let your children be on Roblox.”
“It seems a little counter-intuitive, but I would always trust parents to make their own decisions,” he told BBC News in an exclusive interview.
Game giant
Roblox based in the United States is one of the largest game platforms in the world, with more monthly users than Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation combined. In 2024, it was on average more than 80 million players per day, or about 40% of them below the age of 13. Its vast empire includes some 40 million games and experiences generated by users.
In the United Kingdom, the online security law, which is presented in April, has strict laws for all technological companies specifically aimed at protecting children from online damage.
But Mr. Baszucki says that he remains confident in Roblox’s safety tools and insists that the company goes beyond to ensure the safety of its users.
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David Baszucki says parents should decide on Roblox
“We make in the company adopting the attitude that all bad, even a bad incident, is too much,” he said.
“We monitor bullying, we monitor harassment, we filter all these types of things, and I would say behind the scenes, continuous analysis, if necessary, contact the police.”
Players who choose not to display what he calls “civility” can face temporary waiting times and longer prohibitions, and Roblox claims to analyze all the communications that pass between members on the platform, using more and more advanced AI systems and other technologies to do so – and all that is reported is sent for a more in -depth investigation.
In November of last year, those under 13 were prohibited from sending direct messages, and also playing in “Hangout Experiences” which presents discussions between players.
Contour safety filters
However, the BBC was able to create two false accounts, a 15 -year -old and one at the age of 27, on unrelated devices and the exchange of messages between the two.
While the filters caught our attempts to open the conversation openly to a different platform, we found easy ways to re-recommence to discuss elsewhere and make suggestions on more adult games.
When we showed the boss of Roblox these results, he argued that our example has highlighted Roblox’s comparative security: that people thought they had to take content that could break Roblox’s rules to other platforms.
“We do not tolerate any type of image sharing on our own platform, and you will see us more and more, I think, far beyond the law on this type of behavior,” explains Mr. Baszuck.
He admits that there is a delicate balance between encouraging friendships between young people, and blocking opportunities for them, but says he is convinced that Roblox can manage both.
We also put Roblox game titles that the BBC discovered were recommended by the platform to an 11-year-old child recently, in particular:
“ Lete Nocturne Boys and Girls Club RP ” ‘S Special Forces Simulator’ ‘Squid Game’ ” Shoot Down Planes… because why not? ‘
When we asked if he thought they were appropriate, he said that he was proof of age rating systems of the platform.
“Something that is really important for the way we do things here is not just the title of experience, it is literally about the content of the experience,” he said.
He insisted that when Roblox tariffs the experience, they go through rigorous directives and that the company has a “coherent policy” on this subject.
Mr. Baszucki founded the platform with Eric Cassel in 2004 and published it to the public in 2006 – a year before the appearance of the first Apple iPhone, announcing the start of the smartphone era.
Mr. Baszucki describes his younger self as “less a player, and the more an engineer”, and the first company of the pair was a supplier of education software called Knowledge Revolution. But they quickly noticed that the children did not only use the product to do their homework.
“They wanted to play and build things. They did houses, ships or landscapes, and they wanted to jump, and all this learning was the germination of Roblox,” he said.
The name Roblox was a mixture of “robot” words and blocks- and it remained.
Mr. Cassel noticed that some players “started playing” and did not always behave in a “civilized” manner a few months after its launch, recalls Mr. Baszucki.
He says that the roots of building a “confidence and security system” therefore started “very, very early” and that in these first days, four people were security moderators.
“This is sort of what launched this foundation on the civility of security,” he adds.
But despite attracting it decent figures, it was a year later, when the company launched its Robux digital currency, which it really started making money.
Players buy Robux and use it to buy accessories and unlock content. Content creators now obtain 70% of the costs, and the store operates on dynamic prices, which means that popular items are more expensive.
Mr. Baszucki says that there was an initial resistance among the management team that Roblox became more than a hobby for his players, with the introduction of a digital economy.
Robux has remained and the company is now worth $ 41 billion (31 billion pounds sterling).
The course of the action has fluctuated since its sending in public in 2021, but the global actions of Roblox are worth approximately one third more than they were six months ago, at the time of the drafting of this report. Like many large technological companies, its value culminated during COVID, when locking meant that millions of people were inside.
Mr. Baszuck compares his experience in the construction of Roblox with what Walt Disney may have felt his creations.
He describes his work as “a bit like having the opportunity he had a long time ago when he conceived the Magic Kingdom”, and focuses on the continuous evolution of Roblox in a metavese style experience where people pass in their daily life in a virtual world, in the form of an avatar.
They were also public in their ambitions to ultimately attract 10% of world players.
Invited to describe Roblox in three words, he replied: “The future of communication”.
We end our time together by playing some of his favorite games: survival and dress on natural disaster to impress.
We use his account and he is constantly recognized by other players – but we are always broken by a blizzard outside the natural mansion of disasters.
Additional reports by Ammie Sekhon
