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How to spot the red flags in a Roblox game

Have you heard more about Roblox and its predators lately? That’s thanks primarily to the YouTuber Schlep (real name Michael) and his tireless work over the years to find sexual predators on Roblox before they find their victims. Here is a sample of his good work, prompted by how ten years ago, when he was twelve, Schlep himself was groomed on the Roblox platform. Reports filed by his mother went nowhere, and now Schlep pretends to be a minor to catch these predators, as you can see in the following screenshot:

Screenshot courtesy of Schlep’s YouTube channel.


I’m hoping to interview Michael, so I will leave out recounting more of his history until then. This did seem like a good time, however, to dust off:


Roblox Primer 1: How it’s different and how to evaluate a game developer

Roblox is different than Super Mario or other games because:

  • Roblox is the platform, not the game itself.
  • The games are created by developers, who are not monitored by the Roblox company.
  • Normally, when parents evaluate a game, you can pay attention to two elements: the game-play and the game’s story.


What’s different about Roblox?


Since Roblox is a platform, independent developers create and upload their games onto it. So you must look carefully at these elements of each game:
1) Game-play: How you play the game. What you do in order to play and win the game. Some examples of game-play that I mention often are: FPS (first-person shooter), couch co-op, puzzler and party games, sandbox, role-playing, simulation and sports, multi-player battle, and real time strategy (RPS).
Roblox games might be one or all of these, but don’t be surprised if the game-play is spam hitting a button to see if you can rack up coins faster than your friend. Because a lot of the games are truly the definition of brain rot.
2) Narrative, or Game Story: The story includes both the backstory and what unfolds during a game. There isn’t normally a lot of story in Roblox games, as they are mostly:
3) Social/interactive aspect: How other players interact as part of the game=play and how they treat your child/each other during the game.
4) Creator, typically called the developer, and their reputation within the Roblox community: If you do a google search for the developer’s name, you can often learn more about them. Some things to look out for is if they have numerous developer aliases (this may mean they’re running from their history), if they use underage labor, or ever been accused of grooming minors. Might want to also check if Schlep has ever mentioned them. More on what to research below.
5) Economies of the Games: The Economy of Roblox is complicated and harried. The short of it is that players cannot play more than a basic aspect of games without Robux, and developers often pay their labor in Robux, plus it costs more Robux to advertise your game so that players even see it in order to play it — and make you money, etc., etc.


Robux and the economy inside of video games is the focus of my next piece in this series, so let’s do some quick research on the developers of each game before you let your child play it.


How to Check for Red Flags in a Roblox Games Developer’s Reputation


One late night I did a deep dive into the economics of Roblox, mostly because our sons enjoy light coding and I was considering a holiday project to build their own Roblox game. Not to make money, just to lean into their interests.
Yeah, not anymore.
I’ll go deeper into the screwed up economics in another post, but here’s what to look for when researching a Roblox developer.

Full disclosure: Roblox is still allowed in our house, but under strict supervision and without getting into the development of games for the platform. Some are obvious and others are less clear:

  • Are they a small group doing this for their living and to build a portfolio, or are they a large company making money off the unpaid labor of their worker bees (sometimes even underage children)? This is hard to determine on a simple search, and I’ll see how well Out Think Media can track it on our site. You can’t count on Roblox to identify bad actors if their track record of dodging responsibility tells us anything.
  • Are there pending lawsuits against the developers? So how can you research a game developer who built the game your kid likes to play? Although you can’t count on Roblox for content moderation, you can google the developer’s name and “lawsuit” to see any news. The Roblox Fandom Wiki will show you the most obvious offenders — if they’ve been brought to light — but it takes a LOT to prosecute these cases, and usually, areal physical assault has to happen. We’ve seen, however, that grooming doesn’t always have to end in a physical act for it to be dangerous.
  • Do they make sexual games? Google the developer’s name and “condo games” to see if they make this kind of content:

condo games /noun/

Roblox sex games are commonly referred to on the platform as “condos”. They’re spaces, generated by users, where people can talk about sex – and where their avatars can have virtual sex. In these games, Roblox’s rules are thrown out of the window.

4. And lastly for now, monitoring Roblox isn’t enough. You must check that kids aren’t being directed to Discord or TikTok, where it’s as easy as a search term to find such condo games. It’s also an easy place for adults — including some developers — to groom underage children, as shown in this 23-minute video by YouTuber Visual Venture called “Roblox is Darker Than You Think“.

As you can see, letting your child play Roblox has a lot of layers to keep it safe. I’ll add more primers as soon as I can, so please subscribe to our OutThink Insiders community on Patreon or subscribe to our site below and stay informed.

Photo/Image Credit: Cindy Marie Jenkins, Canva

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Read more: 7 Ways to Show Your Kids the Power of YouTube Influencers Over Their Brains

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