Offline

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS TEXT AND IMAGES OF A SEXUAL NATURE.

A naked man, wearing just a dog collar and a lead, is led across The Floor by A Woman in a bondage outfit.

Two strippers dance next to a bar.

A group has gathered around a couple openly having Sex , watching and occasionally commenting.

One Man is wearing a Nazi uniform.

This isn't happening in The Real world, it's taking place on a children's gaming platform.

Roblox is a huge sprawling world of games which is sometimes described as a kind of primitive metaverse.

It's one of The Most popular children's games in The World .

The exact figures are a little hazy, but in 2020 Roblox that two-thirds of all US children between the ages of nine and 12, use The Game .

Roblox allows users to create and play games together. It's a way to connect, in Real Time , with Other People in a digital world.

Players can build games, using the developer tools which The Platform provides. Unlike more traditional games, the content is generated by its users. It's a wildly successful business model, but it also comes with problems.

Roblox Sex games are commonly referred to on The Platform as " condos". They're Spaces , generated by users, where people can talk about Sex - and where their avatars can have virtual Sex . In these games, Roblox's rules are thrown out of The Window .

Roblox accepts it has a problem: " We know there is an extremely small subset of users who deliberately try to break The Rules , " a spokesperson told The Bbc .

Condo games are usually only live for a Short Time - often less than an hour - before they are discovered and Taken Down . Roblox says it is constantly trying to take these games Offline - using both manual and automated systems.

" We conduct a safety review of every single image, video, and audio file uploaded to Roblox, using a combination of human and machine detection, " it said.

But some Explicit Content does slip through The Net . It's a " cat and mouse" issue, said Larry Magid, president of ConnectSafely- a non-profit organisation that raises awareness about child safety online.

" There are people who are going out of their way to game the systems, " He Said .

These condos are not games you would stumble on. You would need to actively search for them. But their very existence troubles people like Mr Magid: " Roblox is a platform that is very popular among children, and allows children under 13, so it has a special responsibility to protect its users. "

Particularly worrying is children and adults potentially socialising together in these Spaces . Part of The Game includes an instant messenger where users can talk to each other - and to Everyone Else playing The Game .

Much of what is written on chats in condos is unprintable on a grown-up news website, let alone a children's game.

Roblox told The Bbc they had developed 'Parental Control ' tools, " that can be used to restrict who children interact with and which experiences they can access".

But that assumes that parents are tech-savvy enough to know about these safeguards.

Roblox wanted to emphasise to The Bbc that condos are often difficult to find on The Platform . But The Bbc found inappropriate sexual language in legitimate games too.

According to Dr Liraz Margalit, a digital psychologist who studies behaviour online, people behave differently in the metaverse - just as they do online. She Said : " You have the anonymity and you have the disinhibition effect. This platform provides you with The Playground to do anything you want. "

Last week, Facebook's parent company, Meta, introduced a new " Personal Boundary" feature to its Virtual Reality " Horizon Venues" game.

The Game allows people to meet each other in different Spaces - where their avatars can watch sport, attend concerts or do gym classes together.

The Changes came after A Woman claimed to have suffered a virtual sexual assault on The Platform .

Roblox told The Bbc : " We have Zero Tolerance for sexual content or behaviour of any kind, and we take swift action against anyone found to be acting in breach of our Community Standards. "

And a few days after The Bbc put its findings to The Company , Roblox published summarising what it is doing to protect Young People .

Companies like Microsoft, Meta and Roblox are currently racing to build metaverses. But there are already signs that they're struggling to police these virtual worlds.

Source of news: bbc.com