The Roblox boss says that online dating on Roblox, which is popular with young children and teenagers, could help loneliness and lead to physical dating offline
The move has been floated by Roblox CEO David Baszucki just as Ireland’s online regulator attempts to clampdown down on inappropriate activity for kids and teens online.
Mr Baszucki said that online dating on the platform was logical given some people’s shyness or fear of the dating scene. Roblox users, he said, would “have a virtual date to start and then, if they connect, move to the physical world.”
In this way, he told the American podcast Tech Stuff, Roblox could become a “wellness platform,” and something to “help loneliness and bring connection.”
However, Mr Baszucki said Roblox would seek to make the feature restricted to those over 21.
Roblox’s future plans come as Ireland, the UK and Australia attempt to impose stricter age verification conditions online for social media and adult content.
The latest phase of Ireland’s Online Safety Code came into effect last week, with online platforms told that enforcement of a requirement for “effective” age verification measures to stop underage users accessing inappropriate content was now active.
The move has led to only partial compliance by social media firms, with some adult content restricted for newly-set up accounts. However, a survey by the Irish Independent shows that Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X still require only self-declared age to create adult accounts and access some adult content.
Within minutes, the test child user’s account was being served hardcore pornography on X
Posing as a child user, the Irish Independent created new adult accounts for all the main social media services, as well as for adult-only services Pornhub and OnlyFans.
Within minutes, the test child user’s account was being served hardcore pornography on X, as well as adult-themed content on Instagram.
According to a CyberSafeKids survey of 5,000 primary school children, 75pc of Irish children between eight and 12 have a YouTube account, while 74pc of children between 12 and 14 have a TikTok account, 84pc are on SnapChat and over half have an Instagram account, despite the minimum age requirement being 13.
The media regulator is directly responsible for enforcement on companies headquartered in Ireland, which include Meta (Facebook, Instagram), TikTok, Google (YouTube) and X.
Roblox uses Amsterdam as its EU headquarters, as does Reddit. Snapchat and OnlyFans use the UK as their EU offices, while Pornhub uses Luxembourg.
For services outside Ireland, the Irish regulator must liaise with European authorities in the countries where those services are based.
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