- Content warning; in this
video we will be displaying explicit messages that
were sent to a minor, but we'll be giving you another
warning before it happens. So it's been a few months since People Make Games
released our video titled; How "Roblox" is Exploiting
Young Game Developers. In it, we shone a light on how "Roblox", which is today one of the
largest video games in the world, encourages children to
make games on its platform, only to give them a tiny fraction of the revenue that their games make. We had concerns about the
extent to which "Roblox" is a system that predates
on child creativity, and overwhelmingly, you
folks shared those concerns. With game developers
the world over reacting with shock and anger at how "Roblox" was treating its creators. But I'll tell you who else
had an interesting reaction to our reporting, Roblox Corporation. You might remember a
part in the last video, where we talked about a page on roblox.com that told kids they
could make serious cash. After our video was released, this was silently removed
from the platform, but this was just an
appetiser of what was to come. As a result of the first video blowing up, we had a lot of members of the
"Roblox" community reach out to us because they felt we'd only just scratched the surface, and they wanted to tell us about other huge and unfair problems with the platform that they felt were going unreported, and that's what this video is. This is us reporting our findings from the interviews we
conducted with those people. (mystery music) So with this in mind, we
reached out to "Roblox" again. You see, when we were
researching the first video, we emailed them asking for
an interview or comment, and they did not respond. But with half a million
views in our pocket, we reached out to "Roblox" to say that we were working on a follow-up, and this time "Roblox's"
new senior director of corporate communications
and public affairs offered to speak to us on the phone to see if we could arrange an interview. Spoiler; we did not succeed at arranging a straight interview. However, during that call "Roblox" told us that our first video
contained a number of errors. Going as far as to suggest that we take our video off YouTube. Now, we asked "Roblox" again and again what these errors were, and we never once got a straight answer. Closest we got was "Roblox"
sending us to a link to a blog post from somebody
with the online handle, EcoScratcher, asking us,
"Do you plan on editing "or removing the video based on "some of the things the author raises?" But this post immediately misquotes us. It misinterprets our argument. The original draught of
it got my name wrong. In the description of this video you will find a link
to EcoScratcher's post, as well as the link to an unlisted video that we made going point
by point explaining why we don't think any of it
undermines our reporting. Our team was, and still is
amazed that Roblox Corporation, a company valued in the
tens of billions of dollars, chose to lean on a post like this in order to pressure us to
take down our reporting, because that's what this is, by the way. So no, People Make
Games has not taken down our original video, but we
have made this one instead. This video is divided into four parts. Part one; "Roblox's" unregulated managers. Part two; moderation and child safety. Part three; did you know there's an entire stock market baked
into this game's official store in which children are
encouraged to gamble real money? Seriously, how have people
not reported on this yet? Come to think of it, how did
we miss it in the first video? And part four; "Roblox's" black markets. So let's start with the fact
that as "Roblox" has gotten more popular in recent years, it's developed a new safety
issue that runs totally contrary to the platform's core
idea of letting kids safely just make games for other kids. I have no idea how you
fix this, by the way, it seems completely disastrous. So back in the day, "Roblox's" central proposition
was straightforward. Individual kids could
play around with tools, and make games for other
kids, and maybe make money. But as "Roblox" has gotten more players, at the time of this video, it has 47.3 million users every
day, the most popular games on the platform have been
making more and more money, which means there's more and
more competition to be among the popular games that
"Roblox" users actually play. Which means today, less and
less of the games on "Roblox" are the work of just one person. Mostly, the popular games are
made by whole teams of people who are improving the
scripting, modelling, the sound, and are churning out updates to keep people playing. And this is "Roblox" working as intended. During the keynote at the
Roblox Developer Conference in 2018, CEO, David Baszucki predicted that in the next five
years there would be a game on "Roblox" developed by
a company of 100 people. To Rolox Corporation, better games, made by bigger teams are a
sign of the platform's success. But what this means is
that Roblox Corporation is still using the language of, "Hey kids, come get
creative and make games "in a way that parents are
always gonna be cool with," but in actual fact, the reality is significantly
more complicated. Think of it like this. Everyone's okay with kids
making games for "Roblox" because it's games and tools are designed as a allegedly child safe environment. But the bigger "Roblox's"
development teams get, the less work is done
in these environments. Today, more and more people who want to take their
"Roblox" development career seriously develop marketable skills like animation or
programming for "Roblox", and then leave the platform
to sell their skills in a totally unregulated
cluster of virtual communities, mostly Discord service. Signing contracts, or worse,
having no contract at all, with bosses who might have
no experience in management and might be a child themselves. And "Roblox" does not moderate anything that happens out here, because technically, it
didn't happen on roblox.com. Well, think of it like
this, "Roblox" is saying, "Come and make games, legally speaking, "your child isn't entering the workforce." But if you then say, "Okay,
who is my child working for?" "Roblox" says. - I don't know. - Will they pay my child fairly? - I don't know. - Will they mistreat my child? - I dunno. - Is it safe for my child to do this? - Oh, absolutely. - But if something does
happen to my child. - There's simply no way to be sure. - Will you be taking action
against those responsible? - No. - One "Roblox" developer reached
out to tell us their story. Jordan, not their real name, joined the team behind
a popular "Roblox" game that saw them being paid a
percentage of the game's revenue. Then when the owners of that game left to start work on their next game, Jordan thought, "This is my chance." - [Jordan] I planned out for spring break. Okay, spring break, I'm gonna
work 60 hours this week. So basically I kind of crunched. Then we released the update,
and it was wildly successful. It brought the game to
the number one position, and then they decided
I was making too much. So they finally told us about the company that they had incorporated. - [Quintin] The people that
Jordan was working for had, without telling anybody, formed a company. Meaning that Jordan
wasn't a partner anymore, they were now legally an employee. - [Jordan] After going months
of not managing the game, after the games been wildly successful due to us as the workers, I decided to start managing the game. And then them telling me that
I wasn't working hard enough. They started kind of making veiled threats that I was replaceable, then they decided, "We decided that this percentage
cuts, this revenue split, "isn't viable for the longterm. "And so we're going to pay you
fixed salaries from now on. "Which you can increase
by working harder." - So did Jordan then
fight for better treatment or try and warn other
people about these bosses? No, because of how "Roblox" is structured, Jordan decided that the smart move was just to quit, and keep quiet. - [Jordan] Frankly, there's a culture in "Roblox" against speaking out. It's just like reputation and
job security in the future. 'Cause in "Roblox", if
you have a bad reputation with the community you're gonna have a harder time getting job offers, or even offering people jobs. - Jordan's situation is sad,
but not in any way surprising. The way that "Roblox" is structured, individual users can take
unilateral control over games and the revenue that those games bring in. And "Roblox" has set up no
obvious outreach programme for developer abuse. In fact, talking about
what your boss did to you on the official "Roblox"
developer forums falls under the category of harassment. And since there's no platform
for "Roblox" developers to talk about this stuff, it's impossible to know how common these shady business practises are. Now, while we weren't able to arrange a straight interview with "Roblox", they did tell us that they
were happy to go through a normal question and answer
process and provide statements. So we emailed them a list of 13 questions relating to all the areas that
we're covering in this video, and "Roblox" replies; "It is clear to us from
the nature of the questions "that they are not from a
place of objective inquiry, "and therefore, rather than
address them individually, "we think it's important
that we take a step back "and present the fuller
picture when it comes "to our approach to moderation
and the creator community." And that was followed by six bullet points that we'll be reading as appropriate, but here's the headlines,
we asked roadblocks; many of "Roblox's" young
developers are working under other young developers with no oversight. What options does a
"Roblox" developer have if they experience exploitation
or unfair treatment working for another "Roblox" developer? And what tools have you
provided "Roblox" users to know if they are being exploited by the people they're working with? "Roblox" chose not to
answer those questions. Instead, they sent us this statement; ""Roblox" takes reports
of abuse very seriously. "And where a violation of
our standards is found, "we take action on our
platform against the accused." I'm not sure how much
comfort that's gonna bring to Jordan, but let's move on to part two. When talking about problems
with "Roblox's" moderation, it is hard to know where to start. The side of the moderation
that makes the best headlines are the games that simply
should not be there. Like this "WIRED" article on
the fascist role-playing games, or this "Rolling Stone"
article on the trolls who are always coming up with new ways to hide sex games on "Roblox." To hear "Roblox's" players tell it. The moderation is infuriating because it simply works when it's not supposed to, and it doesn't work
when it is supposed to. With automated filters
offering unfair temporary bans for using words like fat, gay, and pill, while still leaving enough
scammers on the platform that the BBC chose to issue a warning. To hear roadblocks developers tell it, well, we actually have
a story about moderation from a "Roblox" developer
coming up later in this video. For now, we're going
to tell just one story. And again, it relates to
how "Roblox's" community has long since outgrown roblox.com with its questionable moderation, and today often has no moderation at all. The official "Roblox" forums, not the developer forums,
were shut down in 2017, with "Roblox" explaining
that they didn't feel they could create a, quote, "Constructive and positive environment." The Roblox Wiki adds this; "It is commonly believed
that the shutdown was "the direct result of a YouTuber
known as iSoToxic raiding "the forums just a day earlier. "Along with the infamous
post by jaredpogi123kaba "on October 1st of that year, "which linked to an illegal
child sexual abuse site." So to clarify, because "Roblox" couldn't
make that forum safe, they decided to instead
shut the whole thing down. Today, the "Roblox" community
is found on Discord, YouTube, Twitter, even the
"Roblox" developer forums are very, very quiet when
compared to all of the unofficial "Roblox" developer Discord servers. So today, "Roblox" sees kids and celebrity developers mingling, and "Roblox saying, "If it
didn't happen on roblox.com, "it's not our responsibility." Now, rather than explain
why this is a problem, Instead, we're going to report on one young girl's experience. So after this channel's
last video on "Roblox", a number of concerned
parties got in touch with us to see if we could force "Roblox" to act regarding a "Roblox"
developer with a few nicknames, including DoctorRofatnik
and Jadon Shedletsky. The person you're about
to hear speak is Sarah, not her real name. When Sarah first met
Doc in a Discord server, Doc was 24, and he knew that Sarah was 12. (soft sombre musical tone) - [Sarah] When I had first met him, he had mentioned his "Roblox" fan game. And I was like, "Hey,
I like "Roblox" too." He was making a "Roblox" Sonic fan game, two things that had caught
my interest at the time. So I asked him about it. Next thing I know, I get five pings, and he sends me a bunch of gifts of it. He's sending me progress of it already. He was the one who started
taking the inappropriate jokes in the DMs first, he kept encouraging it, saying that it was okay
to make these jokes. It's not illegal, it's
not breaking any laws, even though it was literally sexting. It got to ERP level at one point. - This flirtation
continued for a few months, but Sarah made friends within
these games' communities, and so hung around for
years with Doc continuing to act controlling only
and inappropriately. It wasn't until 2020 that
Sarah's friends were able to convince her that this
behaviour was not okay, and helped her to come forward with evidence of Doc's behaviour. However, as anyone who's been following the Me Too movement will
know, coming forward like this often has devastating
consequences for the victim. - [Sarah] It was relieving
somewhat, at the same time, 'cause I wanted to do something
about Doc for a long time. Then a little after that, it was really anxiety inducing seeing everybody start to formulate arguments. And then the first real bad thing that happened to me personally was when I randomly got pinged by somebody who actually does work for "SEO". And fun fact, when he was 11 years old, and he pretended to be a girl, Doc had also flirted with him before me. And he was just like, "Dude,
what the (censor bleep) "your problem, Doc rejects
you, and you turn right around "and try ruining his life for attention?" And I was like, "What the
(censor bleep) about?" - Doc released a video
denying the allegations, going as far as including
this audio of the developers still working under him
defending his character. - [Developer 1] The
DMs that were exchanged between Jadon and the
victims were not okay, but Jadon is by no means a paedophile. - [Developer 2] He understands
the clear dividing line between jokes and serious,
harmful actions against others. - [Developer 3] I'm just saying, what he did was extremely wrong, and I agree with you all with that, but he's not a (censor bleep) paedophile. - And this is Doc speaking. - [Doc] So let me start by apologising for the things I've said. I know I shouldn't have said those things, regardless of the context, moving forward, I will not have this behaviour. While I will not defend myself for the things I said explicitly, I will protect myself
from the blatant attempt at character assassination. For as distasteful as
the comments I made are, they weren't genuine nor
were they filled with intent. - [Sarah] I did actually self-harm after the response video came out. I mean, I thought my
reputation was destroyed now. Well, anyone who had any involvement in "SEO" is gonna see this. - Now, after Sarah and
her friends came forward with evidence of Doc's behaviour, "Roblox" did delete
Doc's personal account. However, this in no way
removes this accused abuser from the platform, or stops his income. Before Doc's account was deleted, he transferred ownership
of his Sonic games to an account created
specifically to hold them. According to Sarah's friends, they have asked "Roblox"
to do something about this by using the moderation
tools, emailing "Roblox", asking "Roblox's"
moderators on social media, and even delivering a handwritten note to "Roblox" headquarters, and
the games are still there. While working on this piece,
we were sent a 14 minute video of "Roblox" community
members harassing a developer who has since left the development team. - ["Roblox" Gamer 1] Yeah, 'cause you're (censor bleep) stupid, and you work with a paedophile. And he pays you, of course
you're gonna disagree. - ["Roblox Gamer 2] I don't
really care for the now, honestly, it's more of a convenience. - It's quite something in this video. You're watching a mob of
people harang a young developer for working for an alleged abuser, because they feel there's no way they're gonna get a
response from "Roblox". We sent "Roblox" the following questions; After banning the creator of the game "Sonic Simulator" from roblox.com, does "Roblox" still intend to leave the games on the platform, generating revenue for the creator? And if someone is banned from "Roblox", what safeguards are in place to stop them from making a new account and
continuing their behaviour? Included in the bullet points "Roblox" sent us were these responses; "We have a large expertly trained team "with thousands of members
dedicated to protecting our users "and monitoring 24/7 for
inappropriate content. "And developers removed from our platform "for policy violations also
lose access to monetizing." That's not true. That's what all of these people are trying to tell them again and again. Doc is still publicly
leading the development of his Sonic games, as this recent update
video from him proves. Doc's ban did nothing. He's still making money from "Roblox", and paying developers to
come and work under him. - Hello everyone, Chris
here with a quick addition to this video, as Quins was actually away when this part came through. So we also got in contact with Doc to give him an opportunity to comment on what we've just shown you,
and here is his response. Now, you can pause the
video and read through the message in full if you'd like to, but perhaps most importantly, he tells us that the messages
that were originally released by Sarah and two others
who came forward in 2020, some of which you've seen
recreated in this video, were taken out of context. Although later on, he does
also refer to his interactions as having been immature,
problematic, and unacceptable. He also claims that those
messages were not the reason he was even banned from
"Roblox" in the first place. And in a follow-up,
told us that another one of his accounts was banned for something which led to several accounts
being banned in one go, including his main one, but
he didn't wish to explain what that ban was actually for. And finally, in relation to his role on the "Sonic Eclipse" online team, he says, ""SEO" follows
my original vision, "but that vision has been
entrusted to other people "to execute the blueprint. "If any staff members
asked me specifically "about that project, I will answer them." which makes it sound like
he's what, an advisor, an external consultant? - [Doc] You're probably asking what's up with the rest of "SEO", where is it at? Well, we've been making some stellar progress as of right now, and we actually have a
bunch of things coming up. - [Chris] But if you look at this video, published on his channel
in April of this year, you'll have heard Doc
talking about his big plans for the game and his
team, including this bit. - [Doc] We're an 11 member team, steadily regaining our footing. - That's Doc's avatar at the top there, with the words, owner,
director, programmer, and animator next to it, which
again, raises the question, has Doc's role and influence
changed in any meaningful way since "Roblox" was first
alerted to the sexual messages he sent to a 12 year old girl? The fact that these messages happened on Discord should not justify
"Roblox" remaining silent. In any other workplace, if someone was accused of
harassment, for example, whether that was through Slack,
or G Chat, or personal Dms, or whatever form, it's
still the responsibility of that company to take things seriously. And again, it's worth pointing out here that we've asked "Roblox"
about Doc continuing to earn an income on their platform, and they chose not to answer
that question directly. - Now, from the upsetting to
the just plain unbelievable. I cannot believe we missed
this in our first video. I can't believe the market
analysts missed this when "Roblox" became a
publicly traded company, and went through an exhaustive valuation. So "Roblox" is one of the largest sources of children's entertainment today, right? Think about other big children's brands, like Lego or Disney, think
about what the market expects from these brands in terms of safety and care for their audience. Take a look at this, this
is "Roblox's" homepage. If we just click the avatar
shop, and then collectibles, we arrive at something
that looks totally normal, but only gets more jaw-dropping
the more you study it. A shop where any "Roblox"
user, no matter their age, can gamble, potentially
making big real life profits, but more likely losing some
or all of their investment. What you're looking at here
are collectible cosmetics that "Roblox" either
sells a limited number of or sells for a limited time. Most recently, as tie-ins
with brands like Vans, the YouTuber KSI, or Swedish
popstar Zara Larsson. And once this initial sale period is over, the only way that kids can get them is either by swapping items
with other "Roblox" users or buying them direct
from other "Roblox" users. And because the cornerstone
of "Roblox's" economy is kids trying to look cool
in front of other kids, these items immediately skyrocket in value from the $5 or $10 that
"Roblox" sells them for. For example, here's a sparkly blue fedora that sells on average
for 15,000 US dollars. But the important part
here is that "Roblox" always takes a 30% cut from any sale that happens on its platform. So the more absurdly
overpriced these items get, the more money "Roblox" makes. There are so many reasons that this is dangerous and irresponsible. I don't know if "Roblox"
knows much about kids, but they tend to not
understand the value of money, and they tend to make bad decisions. We spoke to an Australian
teenager called Jack, who does a good job of showing why "Roblox" continuing to mint and profit from these collectibles
is a nauseating example of the company putting profits before the wellbeing of its audience. When Jack was 13, he
managed the impressive feat of making a hit "Roblox" game, he called it "Secret
Pet Hatching Simulator", which made him 200,000 Robux. And in a heartbeat he'd spent it. - [Jack] I was really stupid back then, but I spent it on stuff in the catalogue, instead of DevExing it into real money, which I really regret now. I spent half of it, and
bought two faces and a hat. And then after the other hundred
thousand finished pending, and I got it in my account,
I wanted this bigger item. It was called the silver
king of the night. - There are multiple answers to this, so I'm gonna have to ask
you, why did you do this? - [Jack] Honestly, 'cause
I had been playing the game for four years at that point, and I'd always been like
looking at the catalogue, always wanting those items, and just finally being
able to afford them. My mind just told me to go for it. - Worse, buying these items pushed Jack below the 100,000 Robux
minimum withdrawal amount. So Jack had just gone
from receiving a paycheck of almost a thousand Australian
dollars from "Roblox", to having a paycheck of $0. What would you have done with
that money if you had it? - [Jack] With that money, I
think I would have kept 300 in savings just for later life. And I would've spent the other 550, probably to upgrade my setup and buy a new master keyboard and stuff. - Okay, you would have
upgraded your hardware, that would have been useful, I would say, for a young game developer. - [Jack] Yeah. - [Quintin] Why is "Roblox"
selling to children items that cost hundreds of Australia dollars? - [Jack] Yeah, it's pretty mind-boggling. I would never spend that
much money in real life. - But Jack's story gets worse. It's not just irresponsible of "Roblox to sell kids these items, it is dangerous for
"Roblox" to let kids be in possession of assets
that are this expensive. After Jack had bought these items, a "Roblox" developer
that he'd been talking to for a couple of months, that
he thought was his friend, sent Jack a file that
Jack thought was an asset to help with Jack's next game. - I downloaded this file off
the old "Roblox" website, which actually contained a cookie. You can get into their account
just by having the cookie. He sold the limited
items for pretty cheaply, and made a quick, I think it
was 50K after he sold them. I hate myself because of it, 'cause with that money I
could've made my parents proud. - Jack then went through
"Roblox's" appeals process, and they responded that they couldn't help because Jack had sold the items himself. Jack sent in another ticket
and got the same response. Jack sent in a third ticket, and this time got the response
that they couldn't help him because the transactions had
happened more than 30 days ago. But at least Jack still had
his profitable hit game, right? Well, no, because in another win for "Roblox's" superb moderation, his game had been deleted
through no fault of his own. - [Jack] In Roblox Studio, there's something called the toolbox, where you can get assets
made by other people and use them for your own game. And then the game got banned, because I wasn't allowed to use something that "Roblox" had provided to me. - Some stranger, it turned out, had harvested resources
from someone else's game and uploaded them to
the toolbox illegally. Which meant Jack was using them illegally, even though he'd been provided them by official "Roblox"
channels, and his game, his work, his income was deleted. Jack's learning Unity now. But all of this, this
selling collectibles to kids is actually only half of what makes the collectibles market so disturbing. Because the market
tells all "Roblox" users what the original price
of these items was, and a chart of how that price has changed, "Roblox" has created
and continues to support a stock market for users to gamble on on their children's platform. With "Roblox" continuing to take a cut each and every time they're
sold between players. This is a breathtakingly
irresponsible feature to put in a game where around half of the users are aged 12 and under. Especially so when there's no
warning anywhere on this page about how much you might lose, and no upper limit of
how much you can spend. Whether you have a few hundred dollars, a few thousand, or a
few tens of thousands, there are items here for you to buy. "Roblox" does have this warning pop up, that the exchange you're about
to do involves real money, but this has only shown
when you're buying Robux. Something most parents will do for their kids with a credit card. If you're a kid who wants
to spend their money, there's no such warning, look at this. You can buy a collectible
as easy as click, and a click, and my money's gone. There is a reason that
societies do not allow children to gamble, it's because
you can't rely on them to have a firm understanding of money, of risk, of addiction, most
adults I know don't have a firm understanding of all three. I once rode in the back of a taxi, with the driver telling
me his winning strategy for roulette for 20 minutes. But even worse, because
gambling and investing are both seen as adult activities, kids are going to be that much more likely to want to do those activities because kids want to act like adults. "Roblox" should be warning children about the collectibles
market, not encourage them, and certainly not trying
to keep the whole feature continually exciting by
minting new collectibles and working with pop
stars to get kids excited. To date, they have minted 12 different "Roblox" Gucci handbags. And just as a point of reference, actual adult stock market trading apps are required by law to issue a warning that you can lose as well as make money. People Make Games was
contacted by one source who made a lot of money trading
these collectible items, and today works in venture capital. He was only wanting to speak to us on condition of total anonymity, which is why his quotes
are going to be read by my colleague, Chris Bratt. - [R] Ultimately, what they've made here is something that lets kids trade extremely valuable non fungible tokens. And they can't actually do that because of the nightmare of regulations they would have to navigate. Even the currency of Robux right now, the legality of that
is really questionable. - We asked "Roblox"; With regards to the collectible store, does "Roblox" consider it responsible to market items costing tens of thousands of dollars to children? And does "Roblox" consider it responsible to display statistics
such as a price chart and original price for collectibles, implying that children can
make money buying such items? "Roblox" did not respond. Although in response to
a different question, they did tell us that parents
can set spending limits on "Roblox", but judging by the amount of headlines around the world of kids running up outrageous
bills accidentally, you've got to wonder if this is a setting that should be switched on by default. But also, spending limits
that parents can turn on is hardly a bulletproof solution, when users on "Roblox"
can make money themselves without involving their
parents at any point. And this brings us onto part four. This is R talking. - [R] So for almost a decade, there's been a black market on "Roblox". It's been an important part of the economy for at least 10 years, And no one's really talked about it because the only ones in the know are the ones participating in it. - The black market that I was talking about there includes
websites like OPrewards.io, rbx.place, and rolimons.com. But there are tonnes of these sites. In fact, if you Google,
buy "Roblox" limiteds, you'll end up on these sites instead of any official "Roblox" sites. So what do any of these websites do? Well, you know how if
you're selling one of these expensive collectible
items on "Roblox", "Roblox" will take 30% of the sales price? And do you remember how
"Roblox" buys your Robux at a just a horrible rate, so you don't get much actual
cash for the Robux you sell? These websites connect "Roblox" users who want to buy or sell collectibles, and "Roblox" users who want
to buy or sell their Robux. So if you're a kid who wants
a "Roblox" Gucci handbag for cheap, you can buy it
straight from a seller. Or if you're a "Roblox" developer who wants to turn the
Robux their game earns into a bigger real life paycheck, you can sell your Robux to users directly, and make way more money. - [R] This hasn't been talked
about for various reasons. Obviously, if "Roblox" is going
public on the stock market, then it's not the greatest look for them if there's been this
underground black market of kids buying and
selling from each other. And because these trades are
happening outside of "Roblox", there's no way they can moderate it, or even track trades to punish scammers. - But also, let's be clear, as anyone who has tried pirating
anything ever will know, illegal websites are not safe
places for kids to end up. There's malware, credit card
phishing, scams, hidden fees. These websites will make kids watch videos or fill out forms, to
say nothing of the fact the kids have to get legally creative when it comes to how to put
their money into these sites. Now, it is in no way surprising
that these websites exist. What is surprising is how
many of them there are, and how the most popular ones have been up and running for years,
that makes no sense, when they completely undermine
"Roblox's" business model. And the reason R said
that they're still alive is that they are now fundamental
to "Roblox's" economy. - [R] Everybody is using these sites, from top game developers down. Of course, people who get caught doing it, their accounts are banned. So "Roblox" has to somewhat enforce it, but at the same time,
most people turn to that because DevEx, the term for
officially converting Robux to real-world money, is kind
of a gamble in the first place. Because if you have limitations, or bans, or anything like that, or if
you're not a community member in good standing, you
might not be able to DevEx. "Roblox" can't crack down on it because they just get backlash, so they turn a blind eye to it. - We asked "Roblox"; is
"Roblox" aware of the existence of third-party websites,
such as OPrewards.io, rbx.place, and rolimons.com, that break "Rolox's" terms of service? And have any resources within the company been allocated
to taking them down? "Roblox" did not answer those questions, but they did send us this; "We encourage our users
to keep their interactions "and communications on the platform, "where we are able to
monitor and intervene. "Often, scams and other abuses happen "off the platform on other sites. "This is why it is expressly against "our policies to direct users off site." Really, Roblox, is it
really against your policies to direct users off site? What about your company wide policy of not acknowledging the
existence of websites that give your users more
money if they go off site? What about your decision to
shut down the "Roblox" forums because you couldn't create a, quote, "Constructive and positive environment." Where did you think those
users were gonna go? People Make Games will
probably not be making another video on
"Roblox", because frankly, investigating this company
is just super depressing. The platform today is almost
inconceivably massive, and getting more power
and more money by the day. In fact, just as we were finishing putting this video together, "Roblox" released their latest earnings report, and the company skyrocketed
in value once again. "Roblox" is now efficiently
bigger than Nintendo. And this success is alarming, because "Roblox" right now
is setting the standard for what society expects in
the future of digital labour, of internet child safety, and
accountability of big tech. The CEO of "Roblox" now has
a net worth in the billions. The company makes decisions that affect tens of
millions of young people. And yet when we ask them questions where "Roblox's own policies appear actively harmful to their young users, we were told that we
weren't being objective, while this company refused to even admit the existence of the
collectible stock market that they created, of the
underground black market website that they allowed to exist. They didn't say anything to us about this questionable reality of kids working underneath other kids. They told us that we weren't
seeing the bigger picture, while refusing to even admit the existence of whole parts of this picture. This isn't PR, this is gaslighting. So considering that People
Make Games probably won't be doing another video on "Roblox", we wanna try and wrap this all up. Give you some kind of conclusion
or takeaway on all of this. Whatever you might find concerning about "Roblox" as a platform, all of it feels to me
like a natural consequence of a company with a profit motive able to act under next to no scrutiny. I'm a journalist of technology and games, and it took me months to
unpick how "Roblox" operates. And that was only with the help of dozens of "Roblox" users
explaining things to me. What hope do most parents
and politicians have of understanding exactly what their kids are doing on "Roblox", or with who. Or the many and varied ways
that Roblox Corporation is profiting from them. And I don't think "Roblox"
has any inclination to help parents and politicians understand exactly how their business works, because right now, "Roblox" is
making money hand over fist, and they're not going to wanna do anything that gets in the way of that. No matter how many young
people shout that this is not a platform that
values their wellbeing. Thank you very much for
watching, everybody. Kind of depressing hey. If you'd like to thank us for our work, there's one big thing you can do, and that is go to
patrion.com/PeopleMakeGames, and make a donation of whatever you think this video is worth. Those donations make a huge difference to the lives of myself
and the rest of the team who put this video together. And your money will help to
fund future investigations. (upbeat music)
Very informative. I've known about Roblox for a long time but never knew what it was all about. Kinda disturbing, this really should be investigated officially.
That game is crack for kids. I have a nephew that has been hooked on that shit for years.
I watched him play once and he was just standing at attention with a bunch of other kids, I assume, for hours. Some kind of weird military roleplay. Pretty sure my sister spends hundreds a year for that "game".
And yeah, he has had discord for a while and I remember my sister being all concerned about Xbox live and running into adults there but does not see an issue with discord.
Skip to the last part if you dont watch the whole thing because that's a great summary.
How the fuck is roblox bigger than nintendo
I have a couple nephews who play roblox so I joined to spend some time with them. While some of the games are quite enjoyable, it's really a wild west of frustration mechanic pay to win games. They have a bunch of Among Us clones and in every one of them you can pay to be the imposter. In a paintball game, you can pay like $100 for a gun that fires like 10000 rounds per minute whereas the best gun you can feasibly get for free is about 100 rpm.
Anybody wanna post a TL;DW, please
I emailed this video to one of my national news stations. I encourage everyone who watches this to do the same. Companies don't care untill their profits and stocks prices are on the line. And that doesn't happen if it doesn't become news worthy.
So children play a 'Second Life-style' game where the kids are underpaid employees, they go to Lego strip clubs, gamble real money and collect useless cyber-swag at massively inflated prices?
Holy fucking shit. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at anything anymore.
Have they heard of Barbra Streisand?
I had no idea about any of this; TIL!
I know this dude from shut up and sit down. Didn't know he had another channel or is he a guest?
Anyway, I recommend his other channel shut up and sit down.