The popular free online game Roblox has been banned in Turkey because the country’s government has concerns about possible child exploitation.
Robloxwhich was released in 2006, has run into a lot of trouble recently, with several reports appearing in recent years suggesting that the game may not be safe for children. In July, Bloomberg reported The Roblox has sent over 13,000 reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2023 alone. Earlier this year, a Roblox Studio executive suggested that the game, which lets users create their own content and earn money through in-game purchases, could provide jobs for children in slums. Now one country has apparently seen enough and has banned it entirely Roblox.
On August 7 Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced this on Twitter The Roblox has been completely banned in the country “due to content that could lead to the exploitation of children.”
Türkiye today According to the company, the sudden ban was mainly due to recent reports of sexual content in the game as well as alleged child exploitation in Roblox
“According to our constitution,” Tunç wrote, “our state is obliged to take the necessary measures to ensure the protection of our children. It is the duty of everyone to pay attention to the interests of our children, to protect them and to support them.”
In a statement to EurogamerRoblox claimed it has spent the last two decades making the game “one of the safest online platforms” for its youngest players.
“The safety of our users is at the heart of everything we do,” said a Roblox spokesperson Eurogamer“We respect the laws and regulations in the countries where we operate and share the commitment of local legislators to children. We look forward to working together to ensure Roblox will be back online in Turkey as soon as possible.”
In 2021 People make games reported about the alleged shit that is going on in Robloxincluding young children being overworked to produce games in order to produce more content and make more money. In April, Roblox studio head Stefano Corazza was asked about the growing concerns that children in Roblox. That was his answer:
“So I can be living in a slum in Indonesia when I was 15, and today I can create something, earn money and make a living with just a laptop.”
This comment was not well received online and led to strong reactions. Shortly after the comment was made public, The company was forced to publish a detailed response and claims that most developers are over 18 years old and that the company has never hired teenagers.
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