The Cornerstone of Making Money on Roblocks

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There are programmes and summer camps for kids that are aimed around teaching them how to make games in roe blocks. It's difficult to look at it and not see it as exploiting the labour of children. And any educational stuff to be kind of secondary to that. Because u make no mistake, this is a company that has built a multi billion dollar empire on mostly young people. And there are certanly a lot of kids making games for the platform. But when they become adults then that creates its own problems because now even thirties or thirtysomethings can still come and make games for us. Even though those kids aren't only less likely to make money than ever,

Paris Marx is joined by Quintin Smith to discuss how Roblox profits from the labor of children, built an exploitative in-game economy, and needs to be regulated as soon as possible.

Quintin Smith is a journalist working with People Make Games and Shut Up & Sit Down. Follow Quintin on Twitter at @Quinns108.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Quintin did an investigation of Roblox for People Make Games. Watch part 1 and part 2.
Roblox went public on March 9, 2021, hitting a valuation of $45 billion. It’s now over $50 billion and benefiting from the metaverse hype.
More than half of US kids and teens under 16 are on Roblox. It’s estimated that half the platform’s users globally are under 13 years old.
Cecilia D’Anastasio reported on fascist role-playing games in Roblox.
Games featuring sex and nudity are not always caught by Roblox, exposing kids to them.

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