Criticism of Roblox/Community

One of Roblox's most commonly criticized points is parts of its community, often attributed to the primarily younger player demographic. Players frequently utilize the Report Abuse system for things that are not in violation of Roblox's Terms of Service, such as another player winning a game or someone refusing to accept a trade offer with them. The Roblox community has been known to produce large amounts of complaints about the platform, such as updates of any kind or the Roblox Corporation's business practices, often sensationalized and based entirely off emotion as opposed to credible evidence or logic. 
The community is also extremely divided, with elitism and toxicity prevalent throughout the platform for different reasons, such as join date, interests, avatar appearance to more serious matters.
== Scams ==
Scams have been an ongoing issue throughout Roblox's history and included notable scams like fake VIP-shirt scams, "Get Drawn" scams, GUIs that trick a player into spending Robux on the game, and numerous phishing scams that steal a player's account. A common issue today involves scammers setting up bots in an attempt to lure impressionable players to their websites in order to hand over their account information, or complete menial tasks to 'earn' Robux through group payouts which also ends up in the scammer receiving ad revenue from the user's information being shared.
'Scambots', as they are referred to, can be seen throughout comment sections of clothing, audio files, models, and groups. They have also begun to evolve in the sense that certain "games" are published to Roblox which are propped up in player count by botnets and serve solely as an advertisement splash screen for the scam site. Roblox has been criticized for not being able to find a concrete solution to this issue, as it has been ongoing for many years.
== Demographic Change ==
Around 2014–2015, some players have noted that a perceived demographic shift from a target age of around 10–16-year olds to 6–8 year olds. This would often be attributed with simpler building tools, brighter and more colorful graphics, and sponsorships by products advertised to this age range exemplified this shift. As the game was targeted to younger players, many Robloxians felt the rules were also becoming stricter, and stuff that would have been allowed earlier in Roblox's history would be prohibited today. 
However, some argue that Roblox always had targeted a generally younger demographic to begin with and that this is simply more noticeable due to increased technology access for younger players. (Additionally, this period being around the time when Roblox would receive an influx of attention from large YouTubers playing it, such as DanTDM, ThinkNoodles, and DenisDaily.)
== Sub-communities and types of players ==
Roblox is an extremely large platform populated by many users with different interests and identities, and this has led to the emergence of various subcommunities to emerge on Roblox based around these interests. These subcommunities may revolve around a specific Roblox experience or content creator, media and interests beyond Roblox, or groups surrounding specific identities such as nationality, religion, or orientation. Some subcommunities are less organized in nature, but are still informally recognized by players through certain similarities between users (such as avatar appearance or join date).
Some Roblox subcommunities have gained infamy on Roblox due to the perceived toxic behavior members of them may demonstrate, as well as negative experiences with members of these subcommunities. Some notable examples include players of certain PVP (player-vs-player) games (such as Arsenal, Rogue Lineage, and Da Hood), fans of certain Roblox content creators (fans of Flamingo and greenlegocats123 are among the more commonly cited examples), and particular avatar appearances and/or cosmetics (currently, the "slender/copy-and-paste (CNP for short)/ro-gangster" archetype of avatars remain as the most outspokenly controversial among players; it draws primarily from overarching modern hip hop and TikTok culture and is associated with particular avatar tropes and cosmetics such as Stitchface and the usage of multiple hair accessories simultaneously). Furthermore, some subcommunities on Roblox (or in Roblox-related circles on outside platforms such as Discord, Twitter, TikTok, or Reddit) exist squarely around actions that would violate the Roblox Community Rules and/or are actively harmful, such as malicious exploiting, audio bypassing, the creation of inappropriate/adult content with Roblox assets, or hateful/discriminatory content. This has led to players both outside and within these subcommunities to voice their disdain for the subcommunity and/or its specific wrongdoings, and some make fun of or satirize them through memes or targeting in-game (such as repeatedly trying to kill a specific player(s) in a PVP game).
Conversely, others will argue against making preconceived judgements on users based on the kinds of subcommunities they interact with or interests they have, as long as they are not harmful to anyone. Some users have pointed out the hypocritical nature of those who partake in poking fun at certain subcommunities, as not only do they too come off as toxic, but these particular actions tend to be in bad faith, based on misinformation, without self-awareness, and in more severe instances, outright discriminatory. They assert that it is better to avoid this kind of behavior entirely and help Roblox be a more accepting platform for its many users.
=== Guests ===
Guests were pre-configured Robloxians who had a multitude of restrictions and differences from normal users:
* Instead of using a blacklist filter chat, they spoke using Safe Chat, a whitelist chat system that restricted users to using pre-selected chat phrases. (which was later removed.)
* In older versions, guests had a yellow head and arms, green legs, and a blue torso, which is the skin of a classic Roblox Noob before DefaultGuest, BillyBloxxer, and BettyBloxxer were established. Guests were dressed according to 's official account. When gear was released, guests had all of the gear that the ROBLOX character had. For a short period of time, because of ROBLOX having TBC, guests were allowed to access Builders Club-only games.
* A guest's name will be "Guest", followed by a random number between 0 and 9999.
* Users who play as guests were only allowed 20 trial plays from mid-2017 until removal of the guest feature. After the 20 plays, the player was required to make an account or log in.
Some players complained about guests because they tended to be clueless on how to play. Guests cannot be reported, which allows users to do anything, regardless of the rules, without fear of repercussions. Due to this, some users troll or exploit as a guest and get away with it.
On October 3, 2017, Roblox removed guest mode. , a Roblox staff member, confirmed that they removed guests to "increase in registered users will drive more visits, increased revenue and player engagement in your Roblox games" and "encourage first-time players to use our social and interactive features with other users". This was a conflicting change, which sparked a protest in the forums to re-add guests.
Even well after their removal, Guests remain as a polarizing topic among the community. Some players say that they still miss the presence of Guests and reminisce about their time playing as one, whereas others may cite the hatred Guests received throughout their time on Roblox and see them as a redundant/unnecessary feature in the contemporary Roblox climate.
=== Noobs/Newbies ===
A noob or newbie is a new and inexperienced Roblox user. Some people believe that they can cause trouble when they play the game because of their overall lack of experience with the nuances and general etiquette of Roblox and its subcommunities. A new player might not understand, for instance, that spawnkilling is heavily frowned upon, or begging for Robux being considered as annoying. 
On Roblox, "noob" is sometimes used as an insult when people are upset or to mock others, leading to more ironic usage of the word in that context over time. Additionally, it may be used in reference to the officially acknowledged traditional Roblox archetype of avatars and their yellow, blue, and green body parts.
=== Online daters ===
Online dating (ODing) is the practice of searching for a romantic or sexual partner on the Internet. Online dating sometimes occurs on Roblox in any experience or on the website, despite that it is against Roblox's Community Standards. Some users claim that online dating is a widespread problem, though there is little evidence to corroborate this claim. 
Aside from being against the rules and not fitting in with the kid-friendly nature of Roblox (or the general safety of minors and their personal information), there are risks associated with online dating given the anonymity on the platform, such as catfishing or people preying on children. There is no way to safely know who other players are, or if they are telling the truth about themselves.
Many players on Roblox are confused as to what online dating actually is; there is a separate problem with users encouraging stereotypes and accusing others to be online dating based on arbitrary reasons and not because they are actually dating. Historically, some stereotypes for online daters include those whose avatars are dressed as realistically, aesthetically, or 'trendy' as possible; certain bundles, accessories, faces, UGC items, and clothing are sometimes stereotyped as 'ODer items' in some communities. Players who wear these items are sometimes perceived as or assumed to be online daters by people in these communities, even if they are not actually partaking in any behavior or actions related to online dating (which would mean that they are not an online dater). Players who are dating outside of Roblox that choose to play Roblox together, even with avoiding such references on Roblox itself, are additionally sometimes attacked for 'promoting online dating'.
Some players are openly against users dating on or through Roblox. Some even take a vigilante approach to online dating, such as looking for players in experiences that are openly dating, and reporting them or trying to dissuade them with various methods. On the other hand, some players have criticized the vigilante approach; players that are roleplaying in romance-adjacent topics or that fit stereotypes of online daters (neither of which are actually online dating) are often targeted by vigilante behavior, sometimes resulting in harassment or false reporting.
== External reviews ==
=== PardonMyFrench's Eric Frenchman on Roblox ===
Blogger Eric Frenchman (owner of TypePad blog PardonMyFrench) had criticized ROBLOX's site and game with this blog post. ("Is Roblox safe for my kids? Not sure so I blocked it.") He complained about the fact that his security program was flashing "like a Christmas tree" and saying that Roblox is not parental-safe, and also dubbed World of Warcraft as being safer than Roblox. He got many replies, primarily from Roblox defenders attempting to get his children back on Roblox as well as other parents stating their own experiences with Roblox. Builderman replied to Eric Frenchman, to which Eric made a new post about. ("Revisiting Roblox")
=== People Make Games ===
Around December 2021, a YouTuber by the name of People Make Games accused the ROBLOX platform for being an unsafe environment for children, which Roblox demanded that they take that video down, especially from an investigation from a young developer who was being abused. As a consequence, the stock price for ROBLOX dropped by 18%.
Category:Community