Latest news with #FamilyOnlineSafetyInstitute
The Star
12 hours ago
- The Star
US state sues Roblox game platform over child safety
The lawsuit charges Roblox with "knowingly and intentionally" failing to implement basic safety controls to protect children. — Photo by Oberon Copeland @veryinformed SAN FRANCISCO: The US state of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit accusing Roblox of facilitating the exploitation of children, prompting the online game platform to reject the claim as "untrue" on Friday (Aug 15). A lawsuit filed by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill contends that Silicon Valley-based Roblox facilitates distribution of child sexual abuse material and the exploitation of minors. "Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritises user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety," Murrill maintained in a release. The lawsuit charges Roblox with "knowingly and intentionally" failing to implement basic safety controls to protect children. Nearly 82 million people use Roblox daily, with more than half of them being younger than 18 years of age, according to the suit. "Any assertion that Roblox would intentionally put our users at risk of exploitation is simply untrue," the company said Friday in a posted response to the filing. "No system is perfect and bad actors adapt to evade detection," the company added, stressing that it works "continuously" to promote a safe online environment on the platform. The Roblox online gaming and creation platform was founded in 2004 and allows users to play, create and share virtual experiences. Roblox is one of the most popular online platforms for children, "offering a vibrant world of interactive games, imaginative play, and creative self-expression," according to the nonprofit Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). A FOSI guide available at its website "walks parents through the basics of Roblox, the ways children commonly engage with it, and how to use built-in features like content filters, chat settings, and screen time controls" for safety. Roblox announced major safety upgrades late last year, introducing remote parental controls and restricting communication features for users under 13. US-based FOSI endorsed the changes at the time, its chief saying Roblox was taking "significant steps toward building a safer digital environment." – AFP
Malaysian Reserve
3 days ago
- Malaysian Reserve
Louisiana sues Roblox game platform over child safety
SAN FRANCISCO — The US state of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit accusing Roblox of facilitating the exploitation of children, prompting the online game platform to reject the claim as 'untrue' on Friday. A lawsuit filed by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill contends that Silicon Valley-based Roblox facilitates distribution of child sexual abuse material and the exploitation of minors. 'Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety,' Murrill maintained in a release. The lawsuit charges Roblox with 'knowingly and intentionally' failing to implement basic safety controls to protect children. Nearly 82 million people use Roblox daily, with more than half of them being younger than 18 years of age, according to the suit. 'Any assertion that Roblox would intentionally put our users at risk of exploitation is simply untrue,' the company said Friday in a posted response to the filing. 'No system is perfect and bad actors adapt to evade detection,' the company added, stressing that it works 'continuously' to promote a safe online environment on the platform. The Roblox online gaming and creation platform was founded in 2004 and allows users to play, create and share virtual experiences. Roblox is one of the most popular online platforms for children, 'offering a vibrant world of interactive games, imaginative play, and creative self-expression,' according to the nonprofit Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI). A FOSI guide available at its website 'walks parents through the basics of Roblox, the ways children commonly engage with it, and how to use built-in features like content filters, chat settings, and screen time controls' for safety. Roblox announced major safety upgrades late last year, introducing remote parental controls and restricting communication features for users under 13. US-based FOSI endorsed the changes at the time, its chief saying Roblox was taking 'significant steps toward building a safer digital environment.' — AFP
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Louisiana sues Roblox game platform over child safety
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills San Francisco, Aug 16, 2025 -The US state of Louisiana has filed a lawsuit accusing Roblox of facilitating the exploitation of children, prompting the online game platform to reject the claim as "untrue" on Friday.A lawsuit filed by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill contends that Silicon Valley-based Roblox facilitates distribution of child sexual abuse material and the exploitation of minors."Roblox is overrun with harmful content and child predators because it prioritizes user growth, revenue, and profits over child safety," Murrill maintained in a lawsuit charges Roblox with "knowingly and intentionally" failing to implement basic safety controls to protect 82 million people use Roblox daily, with more than half of them being younger than 18 years of age, according to the suit."Any assertion that Roblox would intentionally put our users at risk of exploitation is simply untrue," the company said Friday in a posted response to the filing."No system is perfect and bad actors adapt to evade detection," the company added, stressing that it works "continuously" to promote a safe online environment on the Roblox online gaming and creation platform was founded in 2004 and allows users to play, create and share virtual is one of the most popular online platforms for children, "offering a vibrant world of interactive games, imaginative play, and creative self-expression," according to the nonprofit Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI).A FOSI guide available at its website "walks parents through the basics of Roblox, the ways children commonly engage with it, and how to use built-in features like content filters, chat settings, and screen time controls" for announced major safety upgrades late last year, introducing remote parental controls and restricting communication features for users under FOSI endorsed the changes at the time, its chief saying Roblox was taking "significant steps toward building a safer digital environment."
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
Back to school pictures, phone safety, and other dangers parents need to be aware of
There is a certain excitement that comes along with the first day of school, and for some students, that is just days away. However, that excitement can bring some concerns and cautions for parents who might be unwittingly putting their children at risk. For a long time, parents and families have loved to document milestones with pictures, and the first day of school is no exception, but it can be problematic. "What's wrong is when parents put their full name, the name of the school, sometimes on the front porch with the address showing behind them," said Stephen Balkam, the founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute. Balkam said while you certainly want to document those moments, it's best to keep it generic, saying that the amount of information you're posting should be limited to their first name, and don't say which elementary school they're going to be attending. Also, don't post the teacher's name and keep the distribution of the photos to family and friends. "Don't send it out to the world," he cautioned. The reason is that predators and scammers are trolling the internet for a victim. "Identities can be matched through searches with Social Security numbers, and the next thing you know, they get to 18, want to open a bank account, and can't because their credit is in the toilet," Balkam said. He added that the new school year is still exciting and an opportunity. With the new year beginning, it's a great time to reset family social media expectations and rules. "It's fun until it's not," he said. "We just have to emphasize to our kids to stay as private as possible." Balkam said to go into the settings of your child's phone and make sure that they're keeping things private. Untag photos, and disable geolocation on all of their apps. He said that because parents are paying the bill, it's still their phone too. But don't go too crazy - do it in a way that your child understands you're just keeping an eye out. Finally, be on the lookout for bullying. In the internet age, the bully no longer stays at school; they can come home in the backpack through the phone.
Hans India
12-07-2025
- Hans India
Parental controls over kids' tech devices is no child's play
Parenting in the digital age can be stressful and demands a lot from parents. The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) recently released its annual Online Safety Survey, which discovered that almost 50 per cent of parents surveyed aren't using parental controls to manage their children's devices. These are tools that would ostensibly help parents filter out inappropriate content or unwanted interactions on their children's devices. The FOSI authors conclude that the reason parents aren't using the tools is because they feel 'overwhelmed' and recommend parents educate themselves as a good first step toward broader use. While overwhelm is a real thing, we suggest a bigger problem with parental controls is how they are designed. This includes how little attention is given to supporting open communication between parents and children. Once a year for the past three years, we've asked the same 33 children (initially aged six to 12) what they think about content ratings, online safety, game monetization and privacy. Our team's combined expertise in communication, education, policy and game studies analysed their answers. We also asked their parents how they mediated their kids' gaming. Nearly half of them don't use parental controls either. They say parental controls don't always work as promised, offer little context about how settings affect gameplay and force binary choices that don't align with household rules or with children's maturity levels. The parents we asked said that they aren't avoiding parental controls because they feel overwhelmed by them. It's that the tools are poorly designed. Controls can create more problems: At the same time, many of the parents described themselves as highly engaged in their child's gameplay, talking with their children regularly or encouraging play in shared, supervised spaces. Several said they choose to trust their child rather than set top-down limits. Our findings align with previous research on digital parenting. In one British study, parents said that they felt some controls were valuable supplements to mediation, while other controls were poorly designed, introducing more problems than solutions. The use of parental controls doesn't necessarily translate to increased child safety. In fact, using parental controls can create a disconnect between parents and children on key safety issues. Awareness about risks: The six children whom we interviewed were not aware that their parents were using controls, and at least two children revealed they didn't even know why a parent would use parental controls in the first place. In this context, parents' efforts to protect their children had the unintended side effect of obscuring vital knowledge, leaving the children unaware of some of the key risks associated with playing online. Parental controls can remove opportunities to teach kids about safety if they aren't part of the conversation. We believe that the behind-the-scenes protections enabled by (some) parental controls can be detrimental to parent-child communication about online safety. What are the risks? How can children avoid the riskiest behaviour? What should they do when or if they've encountered danger? Meanwhile, parents aren't always familiar with the features and activities they are asked to restrict or allow. Very few parental controls contain information about how gameplay will be impacted by their settings. Many contain terms only someone familiar with the game would understand, while others are hard to navigate. All of this can lead to misinterpretations and parent-child conflicts, making the tools even harder to use. Power of communication: Open communication between parents and children on safety topics fosters trust, which increases the likelihood that kids will turn to their parents for help when something dangerous happens. It enables children to build resiliency, which in turn reduces the risk they'll be harmed by negative online encounters. Research also suggests that parent-child communication may be more effective and help avoid harm than embedded restrictions enabled by parental controls. The importance of open communication is also emphasised in the FOSI report. In households where conversations about online safety happened regularly (six times or more a year), parents and children were both more likely to view parental controls as a useful and valuable tool for online safety. This, the authors conclude, 'supports the view of online safety as a collaborative effort as opposed to a priority imposed by parents on their children.' On this point, we couldn't agree more. Families would benefit from making parental controls and safety settings a family affair. Kids and parents have a lot to learn from each other about the digital world, and reviewing these systems together can provide a much-needed opening for crucial conversations about risk, safety and what kids find meaningful about digital play. Rethinking safety tools: Let's not pretend parental controls are a panacea for child safety. Many parental controls contain serious design flaws and limitations. Very few comprehensively address the needs and concerns of either children or their parents. Now that lawmakers are starting to make parental controls a mandatory part of new child safety legislation, we urgently need to start taking a closer and more critical look at what they can and can't do. Parental controls can be a useful tool when they are designed well, applied with transparency, and provide families with ample options so they can be tailored to not only fit with but foster household rules and open communication. There's a lot of work to be done before this is the standard. And growing impetus for games and other tech companies to make it happen. (Sara M Grimes is from McGill University and Riley McNair is with the University of Toronto)
