Roblox executive says the company isn't 'exploiting child labor,' it's just 'offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job'

Gaming IndustryRobloxRoblox executive says the company isn’t ‘exploiting child labor,’ it’s just ‘offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Roblox Corporation)

Roblox Creators image - eight Roblox characters standing side-by-side, waving at the viewer

Roblox isimmensely popular with kids, who use it not just to play games but to make and share them with other users. Those creations can also be monetized, earning their makers “Robux” that can be cashed out for real money—from which Roblox takes a healthy cut.

In February, Roblox was sued over allegations that it is “exploiting child laborand offering children nearly worthless digital currency for their labor,” but questions about its practices go back much further.

In 2021, for instance,People Make Gamespublished an in-depth report on YouTube entitled “how Roblox is exploiting young game developers,” which it followed up with another on the platform’s collectibles and shady black market.

(Image credit: Roblox Corporation)

Make anything you can imagine – everything you need to start building on Roblox for free. Join a global community of Creators and publish instantly to the world.

“You can say, ‘Okay, we are exploiting, you know, child labour,’ right?” Corazza told Eurogamer. “Or, you can say: we are offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job, and even like an income. So, I can be like 15 years old, in Indonesia, living in a slum, and then now, with just a laptop, I can create something, make money and then sustain my life.”

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“They felt like, ‘Oh my god, this was the biggest gift, all of a sudden I could create something, I had millions of users, I made so much money I could retire’,” Corazza said. “So I focus more on the amount of money that we distribute every year to creators, which is now getting close to like a billion dollars, which is phenomenal.

“And imagine like, the millions of kids that learn how to code every month. We have millions of creators in Roblox Studio. They learn Lua scripting, which is pretty close to Python—you can get a job in the tech industry in the future, and be like, ‘Hey, I’m a programmer,’ right?”

I’m not so sure about that part of it, especially for kids living in Indonesian slums, but there’s no question that Roblox has doled out a lot of money to content creators. The company paid out$741 millionto game makers in 2023, on total bookings (that’s revenues plus the total value of all deals made during the period) of $3.5 billion; the company is currently valued at $23 billion.A PR representative monitoring the interview at one point interjected to note that “the vast majority of people that are earning money on Roblox are over the age of 18.” Which strikes me as rather odd: If kids making content for your platform is okay and even a good thing, why emphasize that it’s also a relative rarity? Unless it’s not a good thing, I suppose. As Corazza himself put it, you can say Roblox is exploiting child labor—and I feel like if you’re in a place where, y’know,you can say that, then maybe it’s time to give the whole thing a re-think.

Correction:The article originally stated that Roblox had hired some teenage game makers, but the company reached out to state that this was a misquote: Corazza said Roblox has “heard from” teenage game makers. Roblox clarified that it does not hire minors to work on the game.

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