The evidence forms part of an investigation by ITV News into the gaming platform Roblox, with experts warning parents not to allow their children to use the platform, as George Hancorn reports
Warning: This report contains language and imagery that some people may find distressing.
The UK’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation has issued a warning after ITV News uncovered multiple examples of extremist content available on the gaming platform Roblox.
Jonathan Hall KC urged the Government to “start monitoring” the game, which is available to children as young as seven years old.
In collaboration with researchers at the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), ITV News spent weeks on Roblox, posing as both a 13-year-old and an 18-year-old.
What we found was alarming.
Mosque shooting
One game, called ‘Remove Kebab’ — an internet meme that refers to killing Muslims — allows players to target worshippers at a mosque, as well as open fire at a secondary school.
Despite school shootings being more common in America, this game was still available to play in the UK.
The spray paint game
Another game we entered as a 13-year-old featured players spray-painting a billboard with the words ‘Deport Invaders’ on it.
Also written on the board was a URL matching the website of the American white supremacist group, Patriot Front.
ITV News also captured the moment in which other players in the game – using voice chat– boasted about giving our player “a taste of white nationalism.”
They even talk about subverting Roblox’s moderation, explaining: “If we just do passive activism, then Roblox will never find us.”
Skins and costumes
Skins or ‘costumes’ can be purchased on Roblox if you want to dress up a player’s character.
During the investigation, ITV News found that a costume for ‘Britain First’ – a far-right, fascist British political party – was available for purchase.
We also found a whole collection of skins from the fascist fashion house ‘Will2Rise’, which is linked to another white supremacist network called Active Club.
According to Roblox, it takes 70% of every sale on the platform, with 30% going back to the original creator.
Roblox is the most popular gaming app for children and teens in the UK, with seven to 14-year-olds spending, on average, two hours a day playing it, according to gaming forum IconEra.
It’s thought that its daily user count exceeds 4.7 million in the UK, with the platform relying on users and creators to upload games to the site, which can then be played.
The gaming platform is rated 7+ by gaming regulator PEGI, but users can be younger if their parents approve their sign-up.
The platform also has parental controls, which, according to the Roblox website, include “content, communication, spending, and screen time controls, allowing parents to manage their child’s experience.”
However, all of the content ITV News found was available to access, even with parental control filters activated.
Wendy Via, CEO and co-founder of GPAHE, told us that the filters have little to no impact on what children can find on the platform.
“There are many, many ways to get around the content moderation rules,” she said. “I mean, since rules have been put in place in the last, you know, 10 years or so, people have been trying to get around them.”
Rachel, a mother from Nottinghamshire, told ITV News her 15-year-old son was on the verge of being radicalised after he spent too much time on Roblox.
“It takes just one bad server, it takes just one bad chatroom to find this stuff. And the more you engage with these things, the more you’ll seek them out,” she told us.
“On something like Roblox, we don’t know who our kids are talking to; we don’t know who these people are behind these characters,” she added.
“We need to start monitoring things a little bit closer because people will indulge their darkest thoughts on there, and it’s damaging our children.”
If you’ve got a related story you’d like to share with ITV News, please email george.hancorn@itn.co.uk
Hall went further with his warning, saying he doesn’t believe young people should be allowed to use Roblox at all.
“Teenagers shouldn’t be using Roblox. They are effectively allowing any number of strangers into their room,” he said.
“Unless I’m really sure that my child is unable to go into some part of that gaming platform where extremism is being pushed and promoted, why would I take that risk?”
‘Joe’, whose identity we are protecting, told ITV News that he has first-hand experience of being radicalised on the platform when he was just 15 years old.
“It only really took me just a few clicks, and I found myself in a pretty disturbing place. I was lucky to get out, but there are others who are not so lucky,” he said.
Joe lives in the US, but said he wouldn’t be surprised if people in the UK are facing the same dangers.
“I’ve seen some people based in the UK who would start in Roblox and then meet up in real life – and they believe in the ideology of the ‘race war’ and want to see a ‘restart’.
“The internet is just not safe.”
We put our findings to Roblox. A spokesperson told us:
“We have a strict policy prohibiting content or behaviour that incites, condones, supports, glorifies, or promotes any terrorist or extremist organisation or individual. We employ measures to review content and behaviour on our platform at several levels to swiftly identify, block, and remove content or users in breach of our strict community standards.
“We have a dedicated team of investigators who proactively look for signals of violative content on the platform, and we use advanced AI technology to review images, text, and avatar items prior to publishing, in order to prevent known extremist iconography from being posted.
“No system is perfect, but as a result of the effectiveness of our teams and technology, it is very unlikely that someone would stumble upon these types of experiences or content. For example, in one of the games shared with us by ITV News, the visit numbers were very low – just a few hundred. By comparison, the most popular games on Roblox have billions of visits. In any case, we took swift action to remove the game from the platform.”
Roblox also explained that users should report anything that could make them feel “uncomfortable” or that “could be in breach of standards.”
If you’re worried about anything you or your teen has seen online, contact the NSPCC or flag it via the gov.uk website.
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