With increasingly easier access to games and electronic devices, as well as a decrease in the age when children start playing online games or using social media, many problems can occur within the online world. The problems within these platforms can lead to various safety issues, such as grooming and even kidnapping, for young children and even older teenagers. This is why there needs to be a strong emphasis on online safety. There are too many tragic stories involving young children and teens who fall victim to completely preventable issues had there been more safety protocols implemented. The issue occurs across the entire internet and isn’t just limited to one platform, which makes it hard to control and is a major concern for safety.
One major issue recently involves the popular platform Roblox. The platform has faced scrutiny regarding user safety concerns. Players and concerned parents have collectively accounted for over 400 individuals pursuing legal action against the platform, according to the Illinois law firm Stinar Gould Grieco & Hensley. This is a significant issue considering that approximately half of Roblox’s users are between the ages of 9 and 16, with about a fifth of the user base being over 25 years of age. The combination of this user demographic and the reported safety issues on the platform raises concerns.
“The things that Roblox has been going through with the face verification is dangerous,” senior Michelle Bortey said. “They have so many leaks, so if that data gets out and all of a sudden my face is around, it’ll lead to other discovering people online.”
Recently, during an interview with the New York Times, Roblox CEO David Baszucki interrupted reporter Casey Newton as Newton asked about the platform’s predator problem.
“I think we’re doing an incredible job at innovating relative to the number of people on our platform and the hours, in really leaning into the future of how this is going to work,” Baszucki said.
Roblox isn’t the only platform where safety concerns for children have been raised. Many other platforms in social media spaces are also viewed as troublesome, including Instagram, Snapchat and Discord.
The worrying aspect is that some of these platforms reportedly do little to nothing to prevent young, underage users from accessing them in the first place. Furthermore, safety is complicated when user accounts are sometimes automatically set up as public, allowing anyone to send messages or view posts without the requirement of following that user.
There are many ways to prevent issues like these from happening on social media alone. For starters, a private account is always more secure since it allows users to filter who can follow them and view their posts. Parents can also utilize the safety features provided by platforms.
“[I] use the parental controls so like, [my son’s] YouTube Kids is set to his age group, if I feel like he’s watching something that I think is inappropriate,” McDillon said.
This advice may sound simple, but it’s important to note that most accounts are not set up with these privacy and filtering features automatically. As more children grow up using devices during their developmental years, there must be a collective effort and a stronger push for better online safety features to be implemented directly into these platforms.
“The best way to protect kids, instead of restricting them, educate them about the dangers of an online presence,” Bortey said.