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Roblox Hit With Multimillion-Dollar Suit By Los Angeles, for Creating Largely Unsupervised Online World That Enables Predatory Pedophiles and Give Them Powerful Tools to Prey on Kids (lacounty.gov)
submitted 5 months ago* by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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The County of Los Angeles filed suit today against social media gaming platform Roblox alleging that the platform failed to protect children from predatory behavior. The lawsuit alleges that while Roblox markets itself as a safe digital space for creativity, it is in reality an unsafe online environment that has become a breeding ground for predators.

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[–] 1 point 5 months ago (3 children)

It's this type of thinking that is pushing the "but the kids" rhetoric seemingly world wide.

We either have a free, open and anonymous internet.... or a dystopian identity-required-at-every-point-of-access, heavily moderated, hellscape.

The internet isn't a daycare, the parents should be playing with them or close by at all times.

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  • [–] 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Internet is not a daycare. You are correct.

    BUT ROBLOX MARKETED ITSELF AS BEING FOR KIDS. ROBLOX SAID THEY WERE FOR KIDS. YOUNG KIDS. ROBLOX SAID THIS.

    You can repeat your daycare line all you want, but that line has nothing to do with what Roblox claimed they were. Your scenario has no place here, since you are not even in the same ballpark or planet as Roblox.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 child)

    I think the point he's trying to make is that parents are not teaching kids to be safe in the internet and instead are asking for daddy government to do their parenting for them, without being aware that what they're doing is signing away the rights of LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE to criticize the government in the future without getting put on a fucking list (Discord's age verification literally sends your info to Palantir and Peter Thiel and profiles the person, especially if they're avid Trump or ICE critics). There were plenty of platforms for kids back in the day, they all had this problem (somewhat), but it was nowhere near as concerning as before because the kids in the 2000's were warned multiple times by their parents to exercise caution when using the internet.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    Teaching kids to be responsible about their online activities is good, but it can’t be the only solution. Just like teaching women to be wary of men can’t be the only solution to stop date rape. (Also, making the victims responsible for stopping their own victimization doesn’t really work anyway, particularly when it comes to kids. It just saddles them with tons of guilt if they fail to stop it, which can be used to keep the abuse going)

    I don’t see why it’s such a problem to have billion-dollar sites aimed toward kids being required to hire adequate moderation if they have social services available. No age checks needed, no verifications or anything, just clear and very strict rules (because again, this is aimed at kids, if adults want to use it they can conform to the kid rules or gtfo) that get enforced across the board.

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  • [–] -2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    That could work but I dunno if Roblox would even want to put on the effort (given that they banned a man exposing pedophiles in the platform), and also having moderators means they ARE a point of failure since there could be a groomer amongst them who just happens to not have criminal records. However, trying to childproof the internet in response to things like this is beyond stupid.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    I dunno if Roblox would even want to put on the effort

    Well yeah, they clearly don’t because they haven’t done it yet, that’s why I said they should be required to do it. If your site targets kids you should be legally required to make it as safe as practically possible for said kids.

    Just because some hypothetical clean record abuser could exist does not mean nothing should be done. That’s just dumb. You could make the same argument about teachers, or daycare workers, or parents. Yes it happens, that’s why lots and lots of oversight should be in place for these services. Maybe external oversight, like idk a licensing board or something. Like most other occupations that work with kids.

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  • [–] -1 points 5 months ago

    I will repeat it. Roblox is not a daycare. If you want your kids to go online and play games, then supervise them.

    Sorry but the ipad isn’t a fucking pacifier. If you want to leave your children unhindered on the internet, Roblox or whatever, then that's on you. If you aren't looking after your child’s well-being, then don't expect some game to do that for you.

    The mental gymnastics people put to place the blame firmly on online games is maddening. I expect those who disagree also let their kids run around the supermarket unsupervised.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    We either have a free, open and anonymous internet.... or a dystopian identity-required-at-every-point-of-access, heavily moderated, hellscape.

    Is your argument that kids spaces should be free and open spaces, because the only alternative is everything has to be age gated? If not, feel free to expand on what this has anything to do with how a service advertised to kids shouldn't be treated differently than non kid-oriented services.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    We either have a free, open and anonymous internet.... or a dystopian identity-required-at-every-point-of-access, heavily moderated, hellscape.

    Is the implication here that this is a slippery slope to where I'm going to need ID in order to use DuckDuckGo or Lemmy or any other website? Because that just seems silly.

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