Roblox CEO reacts poorly to child predator concerns

Developer Roblox Corporation recently launched a new facial scanning feature as a way to increase child safety on its game creation platform. Roblox. CEO David Baszucki is so excited about the move that he gives some pretty heated and questionable answers on a new podcast about age-restricted technology.

Baszucki joined New York Times reporters Casey Newton and Kevin Roose for an episode of their Hard Fork podcast. Published on November 21, three people engaged in extensive conversation Started with Face scanning functionturning to the misuse of data, and culminating in disagreements over the use of artificial intelligence for moderation. Newtown first asked about looters on Roblox, and Baszucki said it's a good versus bad dilemma.

“We don’t think this is necessarily just a problem but an opportunity,” he said. “How do we get young people to build and communicate and hang out together? How do we build the future of communication at the same time? So, I think we've been working on this in a great way from the beginning. When we — almost 18 or 19 years ago — when we first started the company, we just had four people sitting in a room, and we were actually the hosts, like we were always rotating.”

Baszucki continued that as Roblox continues to scale, the company decided to supplement its moderation tools with “the latest technology,” namely “facial age estimation using artificial intelligence.” He mentioned text filters as an example, especially since chatters tend to use “tags, tags, tags” and other keyword tricks to get around the system.

“With artificial intelligence, these filters are getting better and better,” Baszuki said. “We're in a position now where it's primarily about blocking adversarial attempts to breach filters, and adversarial attempts to share PII (personally identifiable information), and we're getting better and better at that as well. In terms of age estimation, I would say we've recently matured to the point where we can complement that. But I would say our strategy has always been to complement whatever technology is out there, to integrate it.”

Before long, the three were interrupting each other, inserting statements and questions to gain the upper hand. Baszucki “categorically rejects” claims in the latest lawsuit that predators use Roblox to find children. He said the platform has done an “incredible job” at innovating compared to other online social platforms and reiterated that the company is “constantly making progress” in protecting children's ability to chat in games.

“There are huge benefits to enabling people to communicate, and we think we see those benefits,” Baszuki explained. “There are a lot of kids who have found their way onto Roblox. There are actually a lot of kids who feel lonely or isolated — and I'm not going to use that as an excuse or anything — but I get a lot of calls from prominent parents who say, 'Listen, if it wasn't on Roblox My kids would be dead to find a community on a platform like this to stay connected. 'I would also say that we do view design as a huge responsibility and not design for sophisticated parents who go in and say, 'Look, I'm going to shut down who you can chat with and all that. “We have to design for all parents and be thoughtful about it. But we do believe we have really good technology up and down the stack. We think that's part of building this type of experience. You know, if you get into gaming, I think support communication is pretty common. I wouldn't list any other games. Generally, I would say, our level of innovation, level of accountability, filtering, image sharing, all of those things are way above and beyond what we have.”

After a more tense exchange around the 150 million daily active users (Baszucki claimed that “almost two-thirds of self-reported users are now over 13”), Roose asked Hindenburg Research Center October 2024 Survey Results The company allegedly disregarded children's safety in the name of profit. He changed the subject, choosing instead to focus on the fact that the activist fund “had ceased operations for some reason,” and asked the host if he had researched the information himself. He then responded that artificial intelligence is making everything better.

“It's really interesting because I think we're getting into a better and better situation,” Baszuki said. “But would you ask the same thing about someone who went from the ultra-manual labor of building a car by hand to an assembly line? The assembly line is probably going to be a lot better without as many people at the same time. So, I think they're referring to the increasing shift to artificial intelligence. Is it better to have an AI system review every image, every piece of text, all of that, so to speak, or to continue to do that manually? So I think that's a misnomer. I think if you interview anyone on our security team or our security system, it's just part of making our system better.”

It was at this point that Baszucki got a little flustered — though not as “downcast” as he's said on multiple occasions — as he apparently high-fived Newton and Rose for “endorsing” the company's decision to use artificial intelligence tools for content moderation and “supporting our Roblox decision matrix.”

“This is a secret interview, do you actually like what we're doing and you're here to secretly support it?” he asked the host, later adding that he was “thrilled to speak.”

“I thought we were going to talk about interesting things in the industry and all that,” Baszuki said. “So I'm not frustrated, I'm just wondering how much fun time I have with you guys and how much fun time we have versus this hyper-focus. But I'm happy to talk about whatever you guys want.”

One interesting thing Baszucki started talking about was the hypothetical “prediction market within Roblox” proposed by Roose. Luce thought this was a “terrible idea” and wondered if the company would consider letting kids bet with the Robux in-game currency. ” Baszuki called it a “great idea” that he liked.

“I actually think it's a brilliant idea if it can be done in a legitimate educational way,” he said. “So, imagine, no free Robux, no free prizes, just a game called 'Dress to Impress Predictor,' and it's not like trying to get kids' money or anything like that. I would be a big fan of it.”

Finally, Baszucki seemed to staunchly defend the fact that Roblox's content moderation tools continue to evolve, pointing to text filtering in the past and face scanning now as ways the company cares about the safety of its user base.

The company Roblox has come under intense scrutiny in recent months because June 2024 Bloomberg Survey This shows that the platform is filled with predators. country likes Florida and Texas Has sued companies that lawmakers say Not enough is being done to protect children Protection from child exploitation and grooming.

Roblox or not, the problem of child predators has begun to reach fever pitch. Crime rates are rising sharply in European societies, according to European law enforcement agency Europol. Criminal networks that weaponize children Commit a violent crime.