Roblox is cracking down on more of its games, this time putting a ban on any titles that let children doomscroll for rewards or stories.
One of the biggest contentions surrounding Roblox recently has been how it protects children on its platform. Plenty of companies and even the US Senate have taken action against Roblox’s child safety measures, calling on them to make vital changes to ensure children aren’t subjected to grooming or inappropriate conversations online.
Following this, Roblox has added a ton of safety features, including age verifications, age-related chats, AI rephrasers to block out profanity, and a ban on adults messaging children through the platform and inside the games.
Well, now they’re implementing a brand new ban, this time protecting children from addictive gameplay and doomscrolling.
Roblox bans doomscrolling games for children #
Sharing the news in their creator hub, Roblox released a message to creators, saying: “Effective immediately, games will not be allowed in Roblox Kids and Select if they combine all of the following:
- A media feed: short-form videos, images, or story-style posts.
- A feed that autoplays, loops, or scrolls on its own.
- A reward, or implied reward, for continued watching.”
They continued by explaining that “Rewarding users to consume a continuous feed of content without natural stopping points is not appropriate for younger users.”
What this refers to is essentially doomscrolling, the addictive and often mindless nature of watching multiple short videos in succession, which often leads to hours.
Doomscrolling is a pretty recent phenomenon that’s caught the attention of millions, with its effects on children and adults constantly being debated. Experts from institutions like Harvard have previously stated that “constantly consuming distressing news can take a toll on our health,” both mentally and physically.
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As such, many Roblox creators and fans have been calling for an end to games that promote the practice. Especially in recent weeks, when various new games featuring the mechanic appeared, there was plenty of fan backlash and calls for them to be banned.