Why won’t I let my child use Roblox?

• Roblox is a popular video game platform for children. I don’t let my child use it.
• Hindenburg Research accused Roblox of not being safe for children; the company denies this.
• I downloaded Roblox to try it myself. I have some concerns.

I have an elementary school age child who loves video games and would really like to play Roblox. After downloading it and testing it myself, I don’t allow it.

Why? Even with the “under 13” settings on, I didn’t feel comfortable with the level of control over what kind of content I could access – and that he could access.

If you’re over 30 or don’t live with a tween, you may have only heard of Roblox. Unlike most Xbox or PlayStation video games, Roblox games are user-generated – and there are thousands of them. Kids can build and create their own games and earn money in the form of “Robux”. In theory, this is a great way for them to be creative and learn a little coding.

User-generated content also means that some games aren’t exactly high quality – or appeal to kids’ worst impulses (toilet humor, cartoon violence, unsanctioned use of intellectual property).

For example, browsing around on Tuesday, I saw horror games and gun-themed games rated for “all ages.” Many games seem to be playing fast and loose with intellectual property: Peppa Pig, SpongeBob, and Mickey Mouse most likely have unauthorized appearances in various games.

There were games that weren’t necessarily violent or sexual, but had weird things on the body, like “Fat Race” or “Get Fat and Roll.”

On Tuesday, Hindenburg Research, a short seller, published a report accusing Roblox of inflating user values ​​and defrauding investors. The company’s shares fell more than 9 percent following the report, but recovered some of their losses and fell 2.13 percent on the day.

A spokesperson for Roblox told Business Insider in a statement: “We completely reject the claims made in the report. The financial claims made by Hindenburg Research are simply misleading. Of course, the authors are short sellers and have an agenda regardless of the substance of Roblox’s business model and results.”

The Hindenburg report also accused Roblox of “exposing children to grooming, pornography, violent content and highly abusive speech”. Roblox disagreed, saying it was a “safe and secure platform.”

Hindenburg’s report was not the first to detail concerns about children using the platform. In July, Bloomberg published a story titled “The Roblox Pedophile Problem.” (Roblox’s chief safety officer told Bloomberg at the time that the platform had no issues with child safety.)

In exploring the platform, we discovered that parents can turn off the “chat” feature, which may ease some worries about kids talking to adults. But that doesn’t address my issues with the actual content of the games, some of which deal with sexual and violent themes.

One part of Hindenburg’s report caught my attention as a parent. I haven’t accessed these games myself, but the bullets below are from the Hindenburg, in the seller’s own words in a nutshell:

• Users seeking sexual experiences on Roblox are so widespread that there are thousands of Roblox sex videos on porn sites, inviting users of unknown ages to create explicit content on the platform.
• We tested Roblox experiences to see what else kids were exposed to. We quickly encountered images of male genitalia and hate speech in Roblox’s “school simulator” game, which had 28.9 million age-restricted hits.
• Despite the company’s mission to “connect a billion users with optimism and civility,” we found games like “Beat Up Homeless Outside 7/11 Simulator,” which had 1 million hits and 15,000 favorites before being removed from Roblox.
• However, Roblox users who identify as age 9 and older can still beat up the homeless in “Beat Up People Outside of 7/11” with over 900,000 hits.
• In the game “Beat Up The Pregnant,” users hacked pregnant women to death in a Wal-Mart parking lot with machetes or killed them with frying pans or a selection of weapons.
• We played “(GUNS) Hospital Job” where users can go on a hospital shootout. The game has ~1.6 million hits and remains age-restricted on the platform. The game thumbnail is a picture of a terrified pregnant woman.

A Roblox spokesperson told Business Insider: “Safety and civility have been fundamental to Roblox since our inception nearly two decades ago, and we’ve invested heavily throughout our history in our trust and safety efforts.

“Every day, tens of millions of people of all ages have a safe and positive experience on Roblox, abiding by our community standards.

“We take any content or behavior on the platform that does not meet our standards extremely seriously, and we have a robust set of proactive and preventative security measures designed to catch and prevent malicious or harmful activity on our platform.”

I’m sure there are positive experiences on Roblox. I’ve heard from parents who find that, with some adult supervision, it’s perfect for their kids; some even play along with them.

But to my 8-year-old’s dismay, it will be a no – at least for now.