JAKARTA – Initially, Roblox was created to be a space for exploration of expression and creativity for children. But behind his cute appearance, Roblox keeps potential harm.
The Indonesian government is starting to realize the potential danger from the Roblox game, which has led to a discourse to block the game.
Not long ago, Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) Prasetyo Hadi revealed the possibility of closing access to Roblox because it is considered to have the potential to spread violent content that is inappropriate for children.
“If indeed we feel that we have crossed the line, what is displayed there affects the behavior of our younger siblings, it is possible (to be blocked),” said Prasetyo, quoted by Antara.
This discourse caused a commotion in society. Some are pros and cons, but some are cons. However, Indonesia is not the only country that questions Roblox’s safety for children.
Citing various sources, Roblox was first developed by David Baszucki, who is now his CEO in 2004 and launched to the public two years later.
The game Roblox is experiencing rapid development. As of 2024, Roblox claims to have had more than 85 million active daily users. The online game company headquartered in San Mateo, California, United States, also posted a market value of 27 million US dollars.
Initially, Roblox was created to be a space for expression exploration and creativity for children. Some circles also mention some of Roblox’s benefits for its users, such as increasing creativity, learning to express and code, learning to computation, and increasing problem solving capabilities.
Roblox is popular with children and adolescents because it allows users to create games or play various types of games created by fellow users.
In Roblox there are social and community features that allow players to interact with each other, create groups, and play together in real-time.
However, the noble intention that was originally to build children’s creativity turned into potential danger after teenagers and adults joined in playing it.
Recently, there have been many oblique reports related to Roblox games, ranging from online sexual exploitation, grooming, bullying, manipulation, even to real sexual attacks by child predators.
The Guardian, one of the UK’s leading media, contains the results of research by the agency’s digital behavior Reveling Reality on how children are exposed to inappropriate content on Roblox.
The study stated that many children do not realize they are interacting with adults, because the identity of users in the game can be manipulated.
“It’s disgusting,” wrote researcher Reavealing Reality, which exposes how easy it is for children to reach inappropriate content and interact with adults in Roblox games.
The content of violence, harassment, and other negative impacts that Roblox users may have made a number of countries decide to block the game.
Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman had banned Roblox in their country from protecting children.
“Our country is obliged to take the necessary steps to ensure the protection of our children,” Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said of the decision to block Roblox in November 2024.
Roblox took this blocking seriously, and after negotiations with the government, Turkey finally reopened Roblox in August this year.
Despite being considered controversial, we cannot deny that Roblox games also have a positive impact on children. As is known, Roblox is not a game with one storyline.
Users, including children, can create their own games using Robox Studio, a development tool that is offered for free.
From this point on, the seeds of creativity and technical ability can begin to grow.
iD Tech explained that many children knew their first coding through Roblox. The article also mentions Roblox encourages children to be creative, learn computational logic, and even digital entrepreneurship.
In addition, Roblox also offers a coding language experience for new programmers through Lua, namely the programming language used to create commands and functions in Roblox games. By studying this language, it will certainly be easier when creating your own version of the Roblox game.
Meanwhile, research titled Learners in the Metaverse: A Systematic Review on the Use of Roblox in Learning created by Jining Han, Geping Liu, and Yuxin Gao from Southwest University in 2023, said Roblox could support learning. Provided, the game is combined with social interactive learning or a collaborative learning environment.
Roblox is also said to be useful for programming in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and helps students’ cognitive and noncognitive learning skills. However, the issue of cyber bullying and violence is a challenge.
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