Redazione RHC : 11 November 2025 07:06
With over 100 million daily active users , Roblox attracts countless children around the world. Nearly half of its audience is under 13, and in Australia, young players spend an average of 137 minutes a day in the virtual world. However, behind the vibrant image of square avatars and millions of user-generated games lies a disturbing reality, as revealed by a Guardian journalist who decided to immerse herself in this world for a week, posing as an eight-year-old girl.
The experiment began with registration, which turned out to be extremely simple: all it took was a username, date of birth, and a checkbox indicating that my parents had given me permission to create an account .
No additional verification was required. The first stop was Dress to Impress, one of the most popular games, which has received over six billion visits since its launch in November 2023. Vogue even reported that adult fashion enthusiasts have joined the children’s audience and that the game itself is being promoted as a fashion brand.
However, behind the façade of the fashion game, disturbing elements emerged. Avatars resemble gray Barbie dolls with unnatural proportions and bodies wrapped in skimpy clothing. The game features a ” meat room ” in the basement that resembles human viscera, secret rooms that hint at a missing woman, and one previous update included a dungeon with a caged woman . A recent update allowed players to pelt other players with virtual tomatoes or excrement in exchange for real money.
Over the course of a week, the virtual child endured cyberbullying, aggressive defamation, sexual harassment, and insults— all with parental controls enabled.
In one game, another user sat on the face of a journalist’s avatar and began making inappropriate movements, ignoring requests to stop . In another, a group of players insulted the character, calling her an “ugly, dirty girl.” Access to casinos, horror games, dungeons, and countless role-playing games featuring free interaction with strangers remained open to the girl’s account.
Professor Marcus Carter of the University of Sydney compares in-game purchases on the platform to ” childish gambling .” He highlights the growing trend of ” pay-to-troll” features that monetize players’ desire to harass others. Roblox, a $92 billion company, generates at least 30% of all transactions on the platform, effectively basing its business on games created by users, many of whom are children. Carter defines this phenomenon as the exploitation of child labor through gaming.
Of particular concern is the fact that many popular games are run by teenagers. Dress to Impress’s creator, known as Gigi, says she started developing the game at 14 and launched it at 16.
Last year, he admitted to making inappropriate jokes about violence and running an adult content server on Discord when he was a minor. One of the game’s 20-year-old administrators was fired after being accused of soliciting a 16-year-old girl.
The platform has long been accused of being dangerous for children. Several lawsuits have been filed against the company in the United States, detailing cases of minors being lured online and then abused. The Louisiana Attorney General has stated that Roblox’s security flaws have created a breeding ground for pedophiles and terrorists.
Australian Cyber Security Commissioner Julie Inman Grant is in talks with the company about new security measures.
Roblox has pledged to make the accounts of users under 16 private by default and to introduce tools to prevent adults from contacting minors without parental consent by the end of the year. A company spokesperson stated their commitment to safety and said they will make over 100 improvements in this area this year. However, Carter, whose professional career involves video games, admits he has no plans to allow his four-year-old son to play Roblox.
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