What is Roblox, the video game platform that the City ordered blocked in its schools?

The City's Ministry of Education ordered on Friday a ban on access to Roblox from school networks in Buenos Aires schools following a report of an apparent grooming case. which would have had as its victim a child who used the application.

Roblox is an online gaming platform that allows users to create their own games or virtual experiences and share them with other players. According to its official website, it has over 151 million daily active users .

The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California. According to its official channels, the first two hundred Roblox Experience Builders—as the platform's games are called—were developers, investors, testers, and friends of the company's founders. The application is available on most operating systems and runs on mobile phones, PCs, and consoles.

As an application, Roblox allows its users to participate in a wide variety of video games, developed by other users. To do so, they must first create an avatar, a virtual representation of themselves that is customizable through various cosmetic items sold through the application, using its own currency called "Robux."

Those who want to go a step further and create their own game can download an additional application that allows them to program and design their own titles and then make them accessible to other users. In this sense, the creator of the "experience" decides everything that happens within it .

One of the main controversies surrounding the platform is related to the use of Robux, since the only way to obtain the virtual currency is by buying it with real money through the application, paying for a premium membership that grants a fixed amount of Robux every month, selling items obtained within the game itself in a market that operates within the application , or creating games that include mechanics that make other players pay for them.

Although the platform itself is over 20 years old, it experienced its biggest surge during the Covid-19 pandemic. At that time, and given the travel restrictions implemented by many countries, it was used by many gamers to stay in touch with their friends and forge new connections.

According to its official website, Roblox allows for the rapid development of virtual worlds , casual games, and player-generated content. Despite controversies surrounding monetization, it defines itself as "a free and safe game for children over 5 years old ."

The decision to block Roblox in Buenos Aires schools came after families from a public school reported a grooming case that occurred outside of school and was linked to the video game, raising concerns about the use of the platform within the educational environment.

“Schools must be safe spaces in the digital world as well . Protecting children from online risks is part of our daily educational task,” said Buenos Aires City Education Minister Mercedes Miguel when announcing the measure.

Meanwhile, Roblox's official website highlights that the company is always looking to improve its " moderation systems and introduce new controls so that parents can manage and personalize the time their children spend on Roblox."

"Parents of children under 13 can set limits on their children's communication , access to content, and privacy settings using Parental Controls," says the official website of the company that created the video game.

However, interaction with other users , often unknown, falls outside the control radars of the authorities and can end in cases like the one that occurred in the Buenos Aires school.

The case that came to light this Friday was not the only one involving the platform. In August, an investigation that began in the province of Buenos Aires and involved the City Police ended with the arrest of a man accused of grooming in the city of Cipolletti, in the province of Río Negro.

As was indicated at the time, the man used Roblox to lure boys and asked them for intimate photos in exchange for the coins used in the popular video game.

The case began with a complaint from a family in the province of Buenos Aires, whose parents reported that their 9-year-old son had made contact in the Roblox video game with another user who bought virtual coins from him in exchange for photographs with sexual content.

Given this situation, the Decentralized Functional Unit of Instruction and Trial No. 8 of Berazategui, headed by Dr. Daniel Ichazo, ordered the investigation and delegated digital analysis and tracking tasks to the Innovation in Technological Investigations Division of the City Police.

According to reports, the arrested man offered 3,000 pesos per photo and 5,000 pesos per video . Furthermore, the prices increased if the boys and girls agreed to in-person intimate encounters. He offered them between 30,000 and 40,000 pesos to meet face-to-face in a well-known shopping arcade , one of the mothers of the children involved reported. However, no such encounters could be verified.