One other report, this time from Hindenburg Analysis, has laid claims and accusations on the toes of Roblox, hitting on the now previous chorus of Roblox not doing sufficient to guard the youngsters on its platform, and on a brand new one: that Roblox is “mendacity to buyers, regulators, and advertisers concerning the variety of ‘folks’ on its platform.”
For these unaware, Hindenburg Analysis is a agency that publishes experiences on public firms it believes are appearing in dangerous religion, whereas additionally betting that these firms inventory costs will go down following the report’s publishing.
It’s beforehand carried out this to levels of success, however after all the important thing right here is that the experiences Hindenburg publishes aren’t simply pure slander. They’re in-depth experiences with pages of analysis meant to back-up and argue its claims.
Within the case of Roblox, the report comes away with a few big, main accusations. Firstly, that Roblox and its management are flat out mendacity to everybody by reporting inflated participant numbers depend bot accounts and alt-accounts as distinctive gamers.
Second, that it’s “an X-rated pedophile hellscape, exposing kids to grooming, pornography, violent content material and intensely abusive speech.”
In an announcement despatched to Eurogamer, a spokesperson for Roblox known as the report “merely deceptive,” and that “We [Roblox] consider that Roblox is a protected and safe platform.”
Hindenburg’s report is the primary main one in current reminiscence to problem Roblox’s engagement numbers, but it surely’s the second main report this yr to accuse the corporate of not doing sufficient to guard the thousands and thousands of children that play Roblox on daily basis.
A report from Bloomberg this previous July confirmed how there have been greater than 13,000 incidents of kid exploitation reported on Roblox in 2023. It additionally pointed to an occasion the place a predator on Roblox went so far as kidnapping a younger lady they met via the platform, and was even lively on Roblox the day he was arrested.
On the time of that report, Roblox’s chief security officer Matt Kaufman mentioned that he “rejected the declare that baby endangerment is widespread, or a systemic downside, on Roblox.”
Earlier than Roblox ultimately launched on PS5 and PS4, it was being blocked by PlayStation management resulting from considerations that it might “exploit” the youthful members of PlayStation’s participant base.
Whereas Roblox definitely stays probably the most well-liked titles throughout gaming platforms, it’ll be curious to see if this newest report re-opens these considerations.
Supply – [Hindenburg Research, Eurogamer]
