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Investigation: How Roblox Is Exploiting Young Game Developers

5 videos recommended on HN
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5 HN users recommended this documentary5 months2021–2026 score 5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

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.

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

5 recommendations · 15 citations · Documentaries · partly dated

20 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@DerArzt Jan 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Roblox October Outage Postmortem
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]
Documentary on young developers earning little and other Roblox issues.
@shagie Mar 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Utah is first US state to limit teen social media access
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]
From a respected channel investigating Roblox.
@follower Jan 2024 Recommends
on HN thread Ask HN: 9-yo son wants to build a game, I'm lost. What can I do?
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]
Parents should watch this report on Roblox exploiting young developers before letting kids build games.
@teddyh May 2024 Recommends
on HN thread Lessons Learned from My First Roblox Game
The one being exploited is the developer. From the article: > I spent $100 on advertising after publishing the game More information: < [this video] >
Points to video as more information on Roblox developers being the ones exploited.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@tytrdev Jan 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard
Read more
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]
@AndrewOMartin Jul 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Roblox tried to sue me for $1.6M [video]
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).
Investigation of safeguards lacking for kids on Roblox.
@phone8675309 Dec 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Kids Don’t Want Cash Anymore
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]
Documents exploitation of young developers.
@felixg3 May 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Unity to lay off 8% of its workforce
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]
Cited as evidence Roblox exploits minors.
@jerf May 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Nintendo sued for “immoral” Mario Kart lootboxes
Read more
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
People Make Games investigation into Roblox's exploitative mechanics targeting children.
@ethanholt1 May 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Roblox players to start seeing video ads in its virtual realms
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]
Source for claim Roblox exploits child developers.
@constantcrying May 2025 Cites it
on HN thread One of the Most Popular Games on the Planet
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.
Cited for Roblox's in-game stock market letting children gamble early.
@dbg31415 Nov 2025 Cites it
on HN thread Roblox Requires Age Checks for Communication, Ushering in New Safety Standard
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]
One of several links listed backing claim Roblox exploits young people.
@amiga386 Mar 2026 Cites it
on HN thread Roblox Is Minting Teen Millionaires
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]
Supporting link for claim Roblox profits from child exploitation.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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