"I am an eight-year-old girl, standing near-naked in a room full of strangers. As the room spins and zooms upon me and people glide around me, I clock my features. I don't look eight. I look like a grey Barbie doll, complete with cleavage and bare feet locked uncomfortably in the high-heel position. I have a large block head that resembles a grey marshmallow. I'm in the world of Roblox, where block-like avatars transform themselves to explore a universe comprising millions of user-generated games."
"The platform boasts more than 100 million active daily users. Almost half are children under 13 and, in Australia, a 2024 study found that kids who used the site play for an average of 137 minutes a day. On Wednesday, the eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that Roblox would not be captured by Australia's new social media ban, but warned it remained on the line as the ban was continually assessed."
An eight-year-old avatar appears near-naked in a crowded Roblox room and is described as a grey, block-like doll with exaggerated adult features. Roblox hosts more than 100 million daily users, almost half under 13, and children in Australia average 137 minutes on the site daily. A log-in performed as a child reveals cyberbullying, aggressive killings, sexual assault, and public degradation despite parental-control settings. A hugely popular girls' experience, Dress to Impress, has billions of visits and attracts adult fashion enthusiasts alongside child players. Regulators say Roblox currently sits outside a new social media ban but remains under continual assessment.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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