In the last few hours, a decidedly disturbing report has emerged regarding Roblox, the platform that allows users to create gaming experiences and which in 2021 brought home extraordinary earnings. The accusations come from the journalist Quintin Smith of the YouTube channel People Make Games, who is responsible for spreading correct information about the development of video games. The affair is particularly complex and deserves to be treated in a delicate manner, given that the accusations are decidedly serious.
According to what was reported by Smith, Roblox would be exploiting child labor, going against all the laws of the countries where the platform operates. In practice, according to Smith, users (made up mostly of children) create their own experiences, but the minimum to be able to receive a reward is equal to 1,000 dollars. With this limit, only the biggest and most popular games get a check. This implication led Smith to receive several emails from users, which revealed decidedly disturbing details.
Exploiting the force of minors to enrich one’s platform is in fact only the tip of the iceberg of the Roblox affair. In fact, in the emails received from Smith, there is also talk of a young developer, who while working on a Sonic-inspired experience created by another user, was seen sexually harassed via chat. Sarah (not her real name) took several years to realize what she was going through was wrong and when she decided to speak out publicly several fans of the project attacked her. Thanks to the screenshots, the harasser was banned, but he was able to maintain the game’s earnings and creative control of the project even after he was removed from the platform.
The accusations obviously don’t end there. According to People Make Games, the Roblox marketplace is actually built to spend even more money. The collectibles market has been transformed by the developers into a sort of gigantic bag, with the testimony of a user who has learned so well to move within the price changes of the platform marketplace that he was hired by a venture capital firm of Wall Street. The black market aspect is also disturbing, with several websites where players can sell their in-game or Robux games to other players for real money. Using these sites is against Roblox’s terms of service, but unfortunately, management is not taking a dry stance, which would not intervene to shut them down.
The lack of governance, the abuses and the inability for the young creators to be paid adequately in relation to the earnings of the platform throw Roblox into a kind of cyclone, from which the company will surely need to get out in one way or another. , also considering its current value, equal to approximately 38 billion gross.