Google and Roblox have teamed up to create a game that teaches kids how to spot online scams and be more careful about sharing personal information online, called Be Internet Awesome World.
This “gamification experience” is located inside Roblox, which Google says helps it “reach kids where they already spend time to teach them the basics of online safety.” It also transports kids to the “magical world of Internauts,” which is home to a number of mini-games that address different aspects of online safety. Some games focus on phishing attempts, while others emphasize “practicing online kindness.”
Anyway, Be Internet Awesome World is now available inside Roblox. Roblox could be a great place to reach kids, with nearly 80 million daily active users, many of whom are children. It has also been accused of being an unsafe space for younger gamers.
Turkey banned the app entirely on the grounds that it allowed for child exploitation, and Sony didn’t even want to bring the game to PlayStation consoles for similar reasons, before finally backing down last year.
There have also been accusations of financial exploitation of children on the platform, according to reports from The Guardian , and popular creations can make designers a lot of money, and the user base is mostly children under 16. This has led many to accuse the app’s developers of gaining a bad reputation by influencing child labor, after all, Roblox’s motto is “Make anything. Reach millions. Make serious money.”
Roblox takes around 30% of all money made on the platform, so it’s interested in the creative contributions of children, and studio head Stefano Corazza once told Eurogamer that the ability for teens to earn money on the platform was “the biggest gift” and that these kids “didn’t feel like they were being exploited.”
You could say: Well, we’re exploiting, you know, child labor, right? Or you could say: We’re giving people anywhere in the world the ability to get a job, and even earn a similar income.
All of which means that Roblox should probably get its own house in order before trying to teach kids how to avoid online scams, and Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki has begun to address these concerns, heading to Washington, DC earlier this year to discuss child safety with lawmakers.
This “gamification experience” is located inside Roblox, which Google says helps it “reach kids where they already spend time to teach them the basics of online safety.” It also transports kids to the “magical world of Internauts,” which is home to a number of mini-games that address different aspects of online safety. Some games focus on phishing attempts, while others emphasize “practicing online kindness.”
Anyway, Be Internet Awesome World is now available inside Roblox. Roblox could be a great place to reach kids, with nearly 80 million daily active users, many of whom are children. It has also been accused of being an unsafe space for younger gamers.
Turkey banned the app entirely on the grounds that it allowed for child exploitation, and Sony didn’t even want to bring the game to PlayStation consoles for similar reasons, before finally backing down last year.
There have also been accusations of financial exploitation of children on the platform, according to reports from The Guardian , and popular creations can make designers a lot of money, and the user base is mostly children under 16. This has led many to accuse the app’s developers of gaining a bad reputation by influencing child labor, after all, Roblox’s motto is “Make anything. Reach millions. Make serious money.”
Roblox takes around 30% of all money made on the platform, so it’s interested in the creative contributions of children, and studio head Stefano Corazza once told Eurogamer that the ability for teens to earn money on the platform was “the biggest gift” and that these kids “didn’t feel like they were being exploited.”
You could say: Well, we’re exploiting, you know, child labor, right? Or you could say: We’re giving people anywhere in the world the ability to get a job, and even earn a similar income.
All of which means that Roblox should probably get its own house in order before trying to teach kids how to avoid online scams, and Roblox CEO and co-founder David Baszucki has begun to address these concerns, heading to Washington, DC earlier this year to discuss child safety with lawmakers.