Roskomnadzor has identified banned content in Roblox. What you need to know

According to Roskomnadzor, many materials have been found in the online gaming space of the American company that can adversely affect minors. Representatives of the service stressed that the verification system within the service does not cope with ensuring proper user security. What exactly is wrong with the game is in the Izvestia article.

Inappropriate content

• On November 29, Roskomnadzor reported that a lot of materials had accumulated in the Roblox environment that could harm the moral and spiritual development of minors. The ministry stressed that the popularity of the platform among Russian children is combined with the emergence of situations there that, according to the service, may create grounds for illegal behavior.

• In general, many Roblox games, especially role-playing ones, allow players to customize their characters and play different roles. This may include LGBT characters (the movement is recognized as extremist in Russia and is prohibited), and storylines, depending on the player's choice and the rules of a particular server. Roblox also helps pedophiles find their victims. In particular, in 2023, the United States filed a lawsuit against a developer company after an 11-year-old girl was raped by a participant in a game she met on the platform.

• Since 2019, Roskomnadzor has repeatedly sent requests to the service's team demanding that access to prohibited publications be restricted. Regular monitoring showed that the internal content selection and verification system does not provide a full level of protection.

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• The American company deleted the materials twice at the request of the agency in January and July. At that time, projects that violated Russian legal norms were blocked. It was about publications related to LGBT issues. In particular, servers with the appropriate designations in the name were deleted, as well as several objects featuring characters or symbols related to this community.

The specifics of Roblox

• The platform is popular with children primarily due to the fact that most of the game worlds in Roblox appear not thanks to studios, but due to the creativity of the users themselves, who create their projects without professional experience. Almost every entertainment on the platform is open to launch without payment, which makes the library of available games almost completely free.

• Over the years, the platform has been at the center of public controversy more than once. In the reports of some analytical companies, there were accusations of insufficiently effective moderation, overestimated data on user activity and the demonstration of age-incompatible content to children, which is associated with attempts to improve engagement rates.

• Representatives of Roblox Corporation denied these statements and pointed out the critics' interest in the fall in the share price. The platform has also been sued by parents, and restrictions have been discussed in a number of countries due to concerns about the safety of minors. Despite such episodes, the company continues to attract millions of active players and holds a significant share in the global gaming industry.

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Controversial Games

• In 2022, the Russian parliament discussed banning The Sims 4 after an update error caused the characters to show romantic interest in relatives, but the issue became irrelevant when the publisher stopped selling add-ons in Russia.

• Later, other games were criticized. The deputies mentioned The Sims 3, where you can choose a same-sex relationship, as well as the Assassin's Creed, Dragon Age, Life Is Strange, The Last of Us, Apex Legends and Overwatch series, which, in their opinion, contain undesirable themes.

• In 2024, the Last Train Home strategy attracted the attention of the supervisory authorities. The St. Petersburg Prosecutor's office tried to block her for distorting historical facts and harming traditional values, but the court refused to consider the claim due to the lack of evidence for these conclusions.

Harmful content is found on all major Internet sites, but the situation is complicated for Roblox by the fact that almost all game worlds are created by users themselves, which turns the platform into a hybrid of a social network and an interactive environment. In such an ecosystem, temporary hidden locations with illegal materials appear, and the gullibility of the young audience makes the site a convenient target for social manipulation.

• At the same time, Roblox uses multi—level moderation, from AI filtering of chats to checking uploaded models, and also cooperates with Russian regulators, removing prohibited materials on demand. Despite the high level of protection, the scale of the project leaves room for individual incidents.

• The possibility of completely blocking Roblox in Russia technically and legally exists. However, it is constrained by the potential public outcry and the importance of the platform for Russian players and developers. Experts believe that systematic work, rather than a ban, would be more effective. Further dialogue between the state and the platform, regular removal of violations, as well as education of parents and the use of built-in restrictions make it possible to create a safe environment inside the game without drastic measures.

When writing the material, Izvestia interviewed:

• Vasily Ovchinnikov, CEO of the Organization for the Development of the Video Game Industry (RVRI).