Children Flood Putin With Complaints About Roblox Ban, Kremlin Says
Children in Russia have flooded the Kremlin with complaints about authorities banning the Roblox gaming platform, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said Tuesday.
On Dec. 3, Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor confirmed it had blocked access to U.S.-owned Roblox, claiming that it distributes extremist materials and promotes “LGBT propaganda.”
Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the Kremlin has received “many” letters from children on the subject ahead of the end-of-year presidential press conference and televised call-in show on Dec. 19.
He spoke after pro-Kremlin censorship advocate Yekaterina Mizulina said she had received 63,000 letters from children aged eight to 16, half of whom expressed the desire to leave Russia after the Roblox ban.
“They don’t write about leaving [Russia], but they do write about this game,” Peskov told reporters.
In its statement, Roskomnadzor said children on Roblox were “subjected to sexual harassment, tricked into intimate photos and coerced into committing depraved acts and violence.”
The game is rife with “inappropriate content that can negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children,” the Russian watchdog said.
The Roblox Corporation, the California-based owner of the gaming platform, says it moderates all content through human review and artificial intelligence tools, including to remove “exploitative content.”
Around 100 million people worldwide use Roblox daily, with under-13s accounting for around 40% of its 2024 users, according to the company.
Roblox was the most downloaded mobile game in Russia in 2023.
AFP contributed reporting.
