[fridek]

I can't stop thinking that content moderation is a lost battle at this point. Roblox seems to be at the deep end with "F moderation, squeeze the profits" approach, but it feels like the only safe way would be to simply avoid business models that engage with any community content whatsoever.

[runnerup]

That's really diminishing the moral culpability that Roblox has. It's less about 'content moderation' (e.g. CSAM) and more about economic exploitation. Roblox structure inherently exploits children. Even if the content moderation was perfect, Roblox would still be exploitative because it is designed to be.

Roblox creates an in-game stock market (with robinhood-esque charts!) for cosmetic doodads which they release for up to $10,000 USD "MSRP". Except that MSRP is in-game money so it doesn't seem real. Every time in-game money changes hands, they take 30%...so even if the cosmetic doodad appreciated 15% on the fun-looking chart, the child still loses money on their "investment" after fees. If you cash out your in-game money, their exchange rate again takes 30% vs buying-in.

By the time children are successfully creating games on Roblox, assuming they didn't get sucked into the ubiquitous child-labor scam "companies" that hire these children...they've been lusting over those $5,000 cosmetic items for so long that they spend the money they made on the platform, on the platform.

It's a roach motel for child labor. You can put your labor in, but you can never cash out. The shame spiral is real.

[fridek]

Oh no, 100% there is a list long as an arm of things Roblox is doing which are completely immoral. The whole thing sounds terrible in my book even if you did it to a consenting adult - and these are children.

[em-bee]

wasn't there a law somewhere at least in discussion that would prohibit taking a cut from trades made by minors?