Frame from Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers Plays with YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers

Open on YouTube First HN thread

5 HN users recommended this documentary in 5 different months between 2021 and 2026.

2007–2026
5 recommendations 15 citations HackerTube score 5

HN commenters cite it as the go-to evidence that Roblox exploits child developers, and parents are pointed to it before letting kids build games there.

People Make Games investigates how Roblox relies on young, often child, developers to build its content while paying them very little. It covers Roblox's monetization model, the revenue split, and the harms to kids who make games on the platform.

Pull quote: “has a couple of reports that I'd suggest parents consider watching first before going down that road” (HN, 2024)

Also tagged: roblox developer exploitation, roblox, child labor, game monetization, platform economics, investigative journalism

What Hacker News said

20 labeled comments from the HN archive; up to 20 are kept per video, favoring different commenters. Each one links back to the original thread.

Recommends DerArzt January 2022 under Roblox October Outage Postmortem
Documentary on young developers earning little and other Roblox issues.
To add, there is a nice documentary here[1] which also has a followup[2] that show even more of the issue at hand. Kids making games and only getting 24.5% of the profit is one thing, but everything else that Roblox does is much worse. [1] [this video] [2] [link]
From a respected channel investigating Roblox.
People Make Games is one of the YouTube channels that I respect in this domain... Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers - [this video] Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. - [link]
Parents should watch this report on Roblox exploiting young developers before letting kids build games.
The YouTube channel "People Make Games" has a couple of reports that I'd suggest parents consider watching first before going down that road: * "Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers": [this video] * "Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper.": [link]
Recommends teddyh May 2024 under Lessons Learned from My First Roblox Game
Points to video as more information on Roblox developers being the ones exploited.
The one being exploited is the developer. From the article: > I spent $100 on advertising after publishing the game More information: < [this video] >

Citations, criticism and jokes

Cites it tytrdev January 2022 under Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard
Read the full comment
I was just getting at the illusion of choice. At the end of the day it's all owned by the same handful of small groups. Found out yesterday that Blizzard apparently owns King. Tencent owns a cut of Activision Blizzard, as well as a slice of basically every gaming company. [link] Note that I'm not even criticizing or otherwise knocking these business practices, I'm simply making some observations. My use of the term bullshit was particularly to describe the illusion of choice. Not that it's anything new. [link] I think the world would be just fine without fortnite, but I will say unreal engine is pretty nice to have. Probably just a matter of time until Microsoft owns unreal engine as well. Tangentially relevant due to Tencent involvement: [this video] [link]
Cites it AndrewOMartin July 2022 under Roblox tried to sue me for $1.6M [video]
Investigation of safeguards lacking for kids on Roblox.
Here's more than you wanted to know: - People Make Games: Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers. [this video] - People Make Games: Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. [link] I think you're right that it's something that can be used in good or bad ways, and the thrust of the argument is that there aren't the kind of safeguards you'd hope for to stop kids falling to one of the bad ways. Like how we keep kids out of Casinos (or used to at least, now we just ship casinos to kids in their FIFA games).
Cites it phone8675309 December 2022 under Kids Don’t Want Cash Anymore
Documents exploitation of young developers.
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: [this video]
Cites it felixg3 May 2023 under Unity to lay off 8% of its workforce
Cited as evidence Roblox exploits minors.
Cool, sell your soul to a corporation that literally exploits minors [1][3]. Of course they can afford to pay Silicon Valley salaries, given that most of the game development is done by sub-subcontracted child labour [2]. [1] [link] [2] [link] [3] [this video]
People Make Games investigation into Roblox's exploitative mechanics targeting children.
Read the full comment
I don't like that Nintendo does this. I don't care who does it, it's wrong. That said, of all the people doing this, it seems to me Nintendo is among the worst targets to go after. They were, to my eye, dragged into this almost against their will, and if anything they've been backing off from it. It certainly hasn't wormed its way in to their mainline games the way it is well into worming its way in to almost every other major publisher out there's games. Again, I don't say this to defend them. It's wrong for everyone. What I am saying though is that this is not a very target rich environment, and there are target-rich environments elsewhere. There are companies that seem to be entirely based not only on exploitative mechanics, but exploitative mechanics specifically targeted at children, like Roblox. [this video] and [link] , the People Make Games investigations into them, for instance. Although there is an interesting strategy for Nintendo to pursue here where they get sued, and then basically deliberately construct a precedent-setting loss to knee-cap their competition on this front. There's a lot of competition for Nintendo out there surviving on the basis of these cheap drug hits of monetary injection whose ability to develop good games on their own merits are clearly well into the process of atrophy, and Nintendo would probably stand to benefit even if they have to pay some millions of dollars in settlement payouts to impose those restrictions on them. If those mechanics wer
Source for claim Roblox exploits child developers.
Roblox has been on a constant downward trend. They’ve been doing some pretty awful stuff, including exploitation of children developers [0], unregulated market which encourages kids to gamble, lackluster moderation allowing kids to be harassed or worse, [both 1] and allowing manipulative and predatory games on their site [2]. [0] [this video] [1] [link] [2] [link]
Cites it constantcrying May 2025 under One of the Most Popular Games on the Planet
Cited for Roblox's in-game stock market letting children gamble early.
From what I have seen about Roblox, it is a game which parents should be extremely critical of and if I had children I would absolutely not let them play it. Not only are there repeat allegations of unfairness towards the player, Roblox also contains a stock market so that children can start gambling early. (See [this video] ) Besides that and far more disturbingly there are repeat and ongoing accusations of child abuse and child sexualization, which the company behind Roblox is ignoring. These accusations are bad enough that they have caused short selling of the company stocks.
One of several links listed backing claim Roblox exploits young people.
Remember, Roblox is toxic and exploits young people. - Roblox Isn't a Game | Psychology Today // [link] - Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers - YouTube // [this video] - Roblox Pressured Us to Delete Our Video. So We Dug Deeper. - YouTube // [link] Roblox is Darker Than You Think (ft. Ruben Sim) - YouTube // [link]
Cites it amiga386 March 2026 under Roblox Is Minting Teen Millionaires
Supporting link for claim Roblox profits from child exploitation.
Roblox turns a blind eye to child exploitation (whether being creeped on by adults, or being exploited by teens/adults to make games) and makes a fortune out of it. If it weren't online, it'd be illegal and people would be in jail. [this video] [link]

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