[shiftpgdn]

My 8 year old and 5 year old girls spend literally their entire allowance on Robux. They would spend literally the entire day playing if I allowed it. The developer toolset is crazy strong too, I bet they're not even 10% of the way with their market penetration.

[bladegash]

Same here, with daughters 4 and 7! They beg me for Robux on a frequent basis and 100% of their weekly allowance goes towards it.

I have no doubt Roblux will continue to make mountains of money. The amount of people playing it is mind blowing and I’m sure there are additional ways to monetize their ecosystem.

As a side note - it’s cool to see them play so well together and I even play with them too to engage with them on something they enjoy. On the other hand, I sometimes get concerned with how much they play and how addictive the micro transactions are for kids their age. Then again, I spent most of my days growing up playing games like EverQuest, WoW, learning to program, etc. , so it’s hard for me to judge.

[rorykoehler]

It should be illegal to target kids with micro-transaction games.

[mlyle]

Remember arcade machines and scrounging up quarters?

If it's like that, IMO it's OK. If it's pseudo-gambling or dark-patterned squeezing all your money out, that's not OK. Roblox is more like the former, usually.

[Nullabillity]

Arcade machines had plenty of dark patterns.

Think of it like indoor smoking or child beating. It's not OK just because some people grew up with it.

[mlyle]

Oh, I remember 194x and Gauntlet being a bit abusive and pay-to-win. ;)

I disagree with you. I don't think that pay-by-usage is inherently bad, for adults or kids.

I also feel like... it's probably best if one doesn't encounter these kinds of things as an adult for the first time. What's better to learn moderation with?

My kids (11, 9, 6) have, so far, largely shrugged off microtransaction things and think they're kinda dumb... But they've spent maybe 10% of their discretionary money since birth on Pokemon cards, which scratches many of the same itches. I don't feel like A) it's bad for them, or B) that they're going to look back at the time and money spent and regret it. But they have regretted spending a little bit on Pokemon cards that they'd later rather have spent on something else, and that's a great lesson.

[skocznymroczny]

My nephews are spending their whole day browsing dodgy ad-ridden bait websites promising "free robux".

[jfoster]

Why? As in, what would be the principle behind that?

How about... Toys? Should toys for kids be illegal? Should lollies for kids be legal?

[jholman]

I mean, I'm not necessarily taking a side on GP's claim, but don't be disingenuous.

Should firearms for kids be illegal? Should driving for kids be illegal? Should gambling for kids be illegal? Should starring in porn for kids be illegal? Should data-mining the behaviour of children be illegal? Should paying children to work in mines be illegal?

Obviously the principle would be something along the lines of "games with microtransactions are potentially hazardous to the buyer in a way, or to a degree, such that while we should allow adults to make their own choices, we should protect children from the consequences of being partially-formed minds, and so we should avoid targeting children with that business model". Same as gambling, or selling your PII to get free services, or starring in porn. I'm not saying it's a slam-dunk argument, I'm saying the structure of the argument is obvious and straightforward. And I expect every adult to be at least partially sympathetic to it, even the ones who end the paragraph with "but, on the balance, freedom is more important, so it should not be illegal".

Well. I admit. I mostly agree with GP's claim. But not with high confidence.

[jsgo]

The way micro transactions work in those games (effectively for skins, special privileges in games, etc.), I think the toy comparison isn’t terribly far off the mark. Guns, starring in porn, working in mines, etc. is extreme in comparison.

Whether it be tycoon games, social adventure games like About Me, Royal High, etc., it’s basically the new form of entertainment for kids. About the time my daughter became generally disinterested in toys was about the time she started liking Roblox.

[piva00]

A toy for a kid, as fleeting as they can be with new toys, is a physical object that can represent clearly some monetary value.

They know that their parents won't be buying many of them, if they have a lot they can see the toys peppered around and parents can point to those and say "no more toys, you don't play enough with all of the ones we got you already".

A skin, special privileges, etc., are quite abstract concepts for a kid to tie it to a monetary value, they buy a skin, they can use it in game and... That's it, they will want the next fix, a new skin, more privileges, it's a bottomless pit of purely virtual assets that are easy to detach from money.

That's my take at least, from being a kid in the 90s and comparing my experience when I got real toys vs when I got digital toys (MMO subscriptions like Ultima Online, for example). I can't imagine how much harder for my parents it'd have been if instead of a subscription I was asking for them to pay or give me enough allowance to buy every item I wanted in a game. It'd be hell.

[jfoster]

Aren't the micro-transactions a bit beside the point? Those seem more harmful to parents' wallets. Surely it's the addictive nature of the games that is more harmful to kids?

If the principle is that anything hazardous for kids should be banned, it makes sense, at least in theory. In practice I think it might change a lot of what is currently considered "part of childhood", though.

[rorykoehler]

Because it's predatory. I'm not sure if it's intended or not but your question seems to be in really bad faith.

[yagya]

My 9 year old brother plays Roblox and discusses the trade values of pets in the games Bubblegum Simulator and Adopt Me on Fandom all the time, but doesn't spend actual money on any microtransactions in the game. Still, I'm surprised to see that there are people that will charge and pay huge amounts of money for rare digital pets in the game.

[uoaei]

I see this sentiment often from parents. It baffles me.

If you made decisions in your youth that you think were mistakes, you should be passing on the lessons of those mistakes. Not stepping back in non-judgment because "who am I to say". You are their parent!

[bladegash]

Yeah, sorry for the confusion - that sentence likely could have been more complete. As others mentioned, I feel as though I turned out fine and I regret next to none of that time spent.

[nhumrich]

I think it's less about "mistakes I made as a kid", and moreso, "I turned out great, so maybe they aren't mistakes"

[aaronblohowiak]

Or lessons well learned

[m0zg]

> you should be passing on the lessons

One thing parents discover is that if it's between dopamine and "lessons", dopamine wins 100% of the time. My 16 year old right now is playing games instead of doing his homework. He's going to have 2 "F"s this semester, just like the last, and one before that, and one before that. Doesn't give a shit - never experienced any hardship (yet).

[meheleventyone]

There's obviously a lot not said here but are you waiting for your kid to be "scared straight" or something?

[m0zg]

Oh no, I'm not "waiting". I'm trying to convince him that he's making bad choices, that he's making his own life dramatically harder in the long run, and so on, trying to get him to actually think what he wants to be when he grows up and create a plan of some sort for how to get there, maybe. He even nods in agreement. The moment I turn around he fires up a game or YouTube and he's right back to his dopamine cycle. So I'm afraid the school of hard knocks it'll have to be.

There's this misconception among non-parents (or even parents of well behaved kids) that kids are robots and they will automatically listen to whatever "lessons" you give them. That may or may not happen, depending on the kid, and you really have little to no control over whether it does happen.

And gaming, social media, etc, companies aren't making any of this any easier, unfortunately. This is something we'll have to pay a heavy price for in 10 years or so, that much is pretty certain.

[AussieWog93]

I'll play devil's advocate here: is he making a bad choice because of simple dopamine addiction or does he actually not want to go down the path that you want him to?

My 17 year-old cousin is flunking school because (in his parents' eyes) he was "addicted" to online gaming, yet strangely when with other family members his "addiction" symptoms would disappear and he would be helpful, diligent and talkative. He'd even listen to advice and help out unprompted. As in, you literally take a phone call and come back and he's doing the dishes. Not playing Fortnite, not watching YouTube, scrubbing plates.

The reality of the situation, that's painfully obvious to everyone except his mum and dad, is that a) there is some sort of breakdown in the relationship that has nothing to do with online technology (he has his iPhone on him 24/7 and will go hours without using it outside the home) and b) he fully understands that dedicating himself to his studies will help him follow the path his parents want for him - it's just not what he wants.

Drug addicts disengage from society well before they become addicted. I don't see any reason why "Dopamine addicts" are any different.

[olau]

My kids almost never do what I tell them unless they can see the point in it themselves.

To me, it sounds like the school is either bad or the match with where your son is right now is wrong.

I've always been curious, also as a kid, but I do remember most of the class mates spending most of their time staring blankly out in the void. The only reasonable conclusion is that those lessons were wrong.

Just like if you design a UI and 70% of your users can't use it. Then we blame the designer, not the laziness of the users.

As an adult, I've since learned that large parts of the establishment doesn't regard people as humans. They don't care.

[uoaei]

This is gonna sound harsh, but:

You haven't earned the trust of your children.

[jvanderbot]

I think op was missing the implied " and I turned out ok "

[pyuser583]

I agree with you.

My daughter spent 100% of her allowance on Robux. Now she doesn’t have an allowance.

[acomjean]

My nieces the same.. very popular with the young ones. They even have an “among us” like game on there

[worldsayshi]

Feels like every moddable game platform with decent popularity has an among us clone nowadays.

[shitloadofbooks]

Among Us is already a clone of Mafia/Werewolf/The Resistance.

[lkxijlewlf]

It is interesting to me that this is a commercial entity. It looks to me more like it should have been an open source platform. It kinda has that vibe to it.