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Comment by expazl | Hacker News Reader

Roblox is a gambling addition mascarading as a game for children and really it should just be banned outright for anyone under the age of 21.

The current laws surrounding video games are naive and are akin to letting minors into casinos in vegas as long as the casinos put a couple of cute teddies here and there.

Yes Roblox looks like a game for kids, but it doesn't play like one, it's not even trying to hide the obvious gambling aspects, but because it's done using "funny tokens" suddenly kids of any ages are welcomed in with open arms.

And that's just one shady aspect of the game, then there's the child labor practices and the whole pedofile scandal.

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Roblox also lets kids write their own games in Lua and immediately share them with other players. It's as powerful a gateway into programming as I've ever seen, more so even than Logo or Scratch. There's a lot to be concerned about with Roblox, but it has its high points as well and is not just a casino for kids.

Boomer hackers cut their programming teeth on DEC PDPs. Gen X did so on Unix workstations (or Commodore/Tandy/Apple/Sinclair 8-bit micros), Millennials on Mac and Windows machines... Gen Z and Alpha will be trained up on programmable walled gardens like Roblox. "General purpose computing" as we know it will be dead, and no one will care.

Even that isn't an unmitigated good - Roblox's encouragement to write games for them has come with a huge downside - labor exploitation and grooming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ

I've informed my son of the exploitation of labor aspect and he understands that if he is trying to sell on the platform he is being massively ripped off.

He doesn't try to sell and knows if he wants to make money his time is better spent elsewhere. He still loves writing and modifying scripts that he just shares with his friends exclusively. He spends nearly an equal time writing code and reading the Roblox programming book as he does playing the game which doesn't seem like a terrible trade-off for the time boxed gaming time. Kids aren't dumb, they can just be naive.

Programming with Lua on Roblox is exactly how my friend cut his teeth (we are mid 20s - some of Gen Z is getting old). He has said on multiple occasions it is the foundation of his programmer career.

> and is not just a casino for kids.

It shouldn't matter what it also is. There's plenty of illegal drugs that you could give to kids that might give them a high but would also help them stay focused in school, that doesn't mean we should be ok with drugdealers pedling drugs to children.

If someone can make a popular video game with the elements of Roblox without the gambling then all the power to them, but arguing that getting a whole generation started with their gambling additions at age 5 is ok because they also get a brief introduction to LUA is just madness.

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