Gaming platform to use facial age estimation to limit chats to similar age groups, as allegations of grooming grow
From next month it will start enforcing facial age estimation to allow children to chat with strangers only if they are in their broad age group.
Roblox compared its new system to school cohorts such as elementary, middle school and high school. It will be introduced first in Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, where children will be blocked from privately chatting with adults they do not know in real life from next month, and in the rest of the world in early January.
Users will be placed into the following groups: under nine, nine to 12, 13 to 15, 16 to 17, 18 to 20, or 21 and over. Children will be able to chat only with others in their age group and similar ones. For example, a child with an estimated age of 12 will be able to chat only with under-16s. Images and video used for the checks would not be stored, Roblox said.
Despite being pretty important to the gameplay, should the developers of other games primarily played by underaged people be forced to ban chat? Like other bigger multiplayer games like Fortnite, Among Us, Valorant, CSGO, etc.
Ahh I see your confusion. First of all we are dealing with a specific game used in a specific way.
If culturally pedophiles would do scrabble tournaments for kids then people would react and say we should stop scrabble tournaments because pedophiles have captured them.
This is not saying adults can’t play Scrabble, just that scrabble tournaments run by pedophiles aren’t cool.
Roblox is being used as a similar tool.
Good news is there are lots games like Roblox with better graphics and gameplay that are not infested with pedophiles trying to groom kids.
So you are not being deprived of anything, unless of course you are a pedo that wants to groom kids on Roblox.
I can see where you’re coming from. But calling Roblox a “specific game” isn’t entirely accurate because it’s got millions of separate ones.
Sure, the majority of Roblox players are kids. But iirc about half are adults. It’s not literally 99% kids with the remaining 1% being pedophiles like you suggest.
Removing the chat function entirely isn’t the solution; pedos would just move somewhere else. Maybe all online chat should be restricted to those 18 and older?
Yeah, I totally get Roblox is a huge platform with a lot to offer other than pedos trying to RP with kids.
Personally, after watching my kids play it and seeing a lot of weird stuff like pregnancy, implied sex, possible rape, etc. I felt that without constant supervision it was not safe for them.
I think a dialogue tree for RP when kids are involved would be safer without totally breaking all RP servers.
I like the idea of of restricting all communication to 18+. It is pretty extreme, but I think considering how bad it has gotten it wouldn’t be completely unwarranted.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Rules
1. Submissions have to be related to games
Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.
This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.
2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.
We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.
3. No excessive self-promotion
Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.
This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.
4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you’re submitting before posting to see if it’s already been posted.
We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.
5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW
Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.
No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.
6. No linking to piracy
Don’t share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.
We don’t want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.
Word games? Multiplayer competitive games?
It’s not just a roleplaying game.
Despite being pretty important to the gameplay, should the developers of other games primarily played by underaged people be forced to ban chat? Like other bigger multiplayer games like Fortnite, Among Us, Valorant, CSGO, etc.
Ahh I see your confusion. First of all we are dealing with a specific game used in a specific way.
If culturally pedophiles would do scrabble tournaments for kids then people would react and say we should stop scrabble tournaments because pedophiles have captured them.
This is not saying adults can’t play Scrabble, just that scrabble tournaments run by pedophiles aren’t cool.
Roblox is being used as a similar tool.
Good news is there are lots games like Roblox with better graphics and gameplay that are not infested with pedophiles trying to groom kids.
So you are not being deprived of anything, unless of course you are a pedo that wants to groom kids on Roblox.
I can see where you’re coming from. But calling Roblox a “specific game” isn’t entirely accurate because it’s got millions of separate ones.
Sure, the majority of Roblox players are kids. But iirc about half are adults. It’s not literally 99% kids with the remaining 1% being pedophiles like you suggest.
Removing the chat function entirely isn’t the solution; pedos would just move somewhere else. Maybe all online chat should be restricted to those 18 and older?
Yeah, I totally get Roblox is a huge platform with a lot to offer other than pedos trying to RP with kids.
Personally, after watching my kids play it and seeing a lot of weird stuff like pregnancy, implied sex, possible rape, etc. I felt that without constant supervision it was not safe for them.
I think a dialogue tree for RP when kids are involved would be safer without totally breaking all RP servers.
I like the idea of of restricting all communication to 18+. It is pretty extreme, but I think considering how bad it has gotten it wouldn’t be completely unwarranted.