Is Roblox safe for kids?

The first Fortnite World Championship is history. Now it is known that there is a game that is currently more popular - especially among the under-13s. The name of the game? "Roblox". And parents should keep a few things in mind to protect their offspring from data misuse or disturbing content ...
The Fortnite World Cup finals were held in New York City from July 26-28, 2019. The 16-year-old American Kyle Giersdorf, alias Bugha, became the winner or world champion and was thus $ 3 million richer.

Roblox developers announced in the official blog in early August that over 100 million people log into the game each month. For comparison: Minecraft had 91 million players in March 2019, Fortnite 78 million in August 2018.

What is Roblox?

Roblox is a platform on which players can create their own games. In 2004 the whole thing started under the name "DynaBlocks", in 2005 the name was changed to "ROBLOX" and the PC version was published.

With the game, Roblox as such, the engine "Roblox Studio" is downloaded. This gives gamers the opportunity to create their own games. The bricks used to build in Roblox are reminiscent of Lego blocks. Accordingly, the game characters almost look like Lego figures.

Since Robox is a so-called massively multiplayer online game, the players meet virtually: They can change their game world, which is reminiscent of Minecraft. In addition, you can create your own games that other Roblox gamers can play, as well as items and areas. There are currently around 60 million games within Roblox. Is Roblox Play Free?

Roblox can now be played with the following hardware: PC, Xbox One, Apple and Android devices. Around half of the users are younger than 13.

In itself, the sandbox game Roblox is free. However, anyone who sells or buys created content uses the "Robux". This is the in-game currency that can also be used to purchase extras. Robux can also be collected and bought with real money. There are also paid Roblox subscriptions.

Roblox: What should parents pay attention to?

So far there is no classification of the entertainment software self-control, in short: USK, for Roblox. The game guide NRW warns parents that children could pass on their private data to strangers (who are not children): “There are not always real children or young people behind the virtual characters (…). That's why you should never give out private data. ”This applies particularly to cell phone numbers and photos.

Roblox also contains content that is harmful to young people, for example sexually offensive or disturbing or glorifying violence. That's why parents should check their children's profile settings: According to the developer of Roblox, there is an option that only shows games for under-13s.