The popular video game platform Roblox has faced backlash in the past for child predators that use the website to lure children. Roblox CEO David Baszucki was recently asked about the issue in a new interview, and surprisingly enough, he referred to the presence of child predators on Roblox as an “opportunity.”
The website recently introduced an AI that estimates the ages of users as a precautionary measure, but the problem is still ongoing, with several states having filed lawsuits against Roblox regarding child safety issues. Now, while appearing on the New York Times podcast Hard Fork, Baszucki was specifically asked by hosts Casey Newton and Kevin Roose about “the problem of predators on Roblox.”
Here’s how Baszucki answered:
“We think of it not necessarily just as a problem, but an opportunity as well,” said Baszucki. “How do we allow young people to build, communicate and hang out together? How do we build the future of communication at the same time?”
He continued his answer by discussing their goals with growing the platform:
“At the scale we’re at, 150 million daily actives, 11 billion hours a month, like what is the best way to keep pushing this forward?”
Baszucki’s answers typically continued to steer the conversation towards Roblox’s growth and the numbers behind the platform. He was then asked a similarly direct question regarding the platform’s safety for children: “You don’t think you have a problem with predators on the platform?”
His response was shared as follows:
“I think we’re doing an incredible job at innovating relative to the number of people on our platform and the hours, in really leaning into the future of how this is going to work.”
At one point, the hosts referenced a report from Hindenburg Research that claimed Roblox was “compromising child safety in order to report growth to investors.” Baszucki answered with another dismissive response:
“Fun,” he began. “Let’s keep going down this. And so, first off, Hindenburg is no longer in existence, correct? So, you should report on that. They went out of business for some reason.”
It’s a pattern that continued to be repeated throughout the discussion. Listeners have been concerned about Baszucki’s responses since it was conducted, though it remains to be seen what this means for the future of Roblox and whether or not plans for the gaming platform will simply move ahead as expected. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding the Roblox debacle as we have them.