Recently, I was sitting with a group of elementary school students. They were talking about everything they had seen online. They were funny but also serious as they explained their online adventures in the workshop.

My aim that day was to figure out how some of these darling children had stumbled upon inappropriate content. As I asked questions and discussed they let me enter their world, and the answer spilled out. I am rarely shocked, but I was to discover that inappropriate content was found on Roblox. 

They explained that they were disturbed and felt violated when the clothing from their avatar was removed as they entered a room in the game. 

"It was gross, Miss. I felt so bad!"

I asked if they had told Mom and Dad:

"Of course not!" 

Why?

"They would not let us play!"

These children love this game, and don't want it taken away. But they also have a need to ask questions and talk about what they had seen online, specifically in condo games, a term these elementary schoolers taught me. Condo games are user-generated spaces where players can talk about sex, avatars can have virtual sex, and all Roblox rules are somehow non-existent.

After this conversation, we decided as a team to put a flyer together to help you with all things Roblox and to inspire you to have conversations which are so desperately needed with young children. 

A last word of advice: 

If you let your child play a game, you will need to play and understand the game too, to guide them. In Roblox, for example, you will learn that you need to keep an eye on what rooms they enter, and you need to tell them to come to you if they see anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. Tell them you won't ban them; you will simply help them make whatever it is stop. 

–Allison Ochs, social pedagogue/worker, author, mother of three, wife

Photo by Unsplash

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