Turkey has become the first country in the world to ban Roblox, because of concerns of children being exploited while playing the game.
Along with Minecraft, Roblox is the most popular video game in the world. But while both games are aimed primarily at children it’s Roblox that is by far the most controversial, given the way it uses microtransactions and the online creations of its players to make money.
That seems to be part of the reason that Turkey has banned the game, although despite a long tweet on the matter, from the country’s Minister of Justice, Yılmaz Tunç, it’s not entirely clear why the ban is happening.
However, according to Google Translate, he said it’s because of ‘content that could lead to the exploitation of children’ and that the state is ‘obliged to take the necessary measures to ensure the protection of our children.’
Many people across the world have been concerned about the game’s reliance on having kids make games for other kids to play – which is the whole basis of Roblox, since it has no core gameplay of its own – and yet critics have argued that Roblox makes it very hard for any of them to make any money from it.
Many of the games also use highly exploitive monetisation methods, which are all the more effective given they’re aimed at children, but it doesn’t seem as if any of these commonly discussed issues are behind the ban.
A Türkiye Today report suggests that the ban was primarily because of concerns over sexual content, which was ‘perceived as exploiting children.’
This includes claims that virtual parties were ‘a gathering spot for paedophiles’ and that the in-game currency Roblox was being used to incentivise children into joining them. Türkiye Today also highlights ‘excess amounts of gambling’ as one of the reasons for the ban.
‘We’ve spent almost 20 years making Roblox one of the safest online platforms for our users, particularly the youngest, and ensuring the safety of our users is at the core of everything we do,’ said Roblox in a statement.
‘We respect the laws and regulations in countries where we operate and share local lawmakers’ commitment to children. We look forward to working together to ensure Roblox is back online in Türkiye as soon as possible.’
The ban arrives just five days after Turkey banned Instagram, although that seems unrelated given that ban was because the site was accused of censoring posts related to the death of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh.
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