‘Nearly every kid had been scammed’: Inside Roblox’s predatory economy for children

Australian children are being systematically scammed on internet gaming platform Roblox, as experts warn they are exposed to predatory practices that normalise gambling.

Two world-first University of Sydney studies reveal Roblox, which is played by the majority of Australians aged between six and 13 years, exposes youth to misleading tricks that would be illegal in non-game contexts, ultimately skewing their perception of money and spending.

Roblox is a global juggernaut with 350 million monthly players, more than half of whom are under the age of 17.

While most of its millions of user-created games are free to play, they push paid upgrades, bonuses and random items. This model generates an estimated $8.04 billion annually, driven by the sale of Robux, Roblox’s virtual currency.

Leading Australian games researcher Professor Marcus Carter, who spearheaded the studies, says children’s “pocket money is going down the toilet”.

“We need to understand what’s going on in there – it’s where so many kids are spending their time and money,” he said.

To understand this monetisation, researchers gave children a $20 gift card. Half immediately converted it into Robux.

In interviews, children frequently reported not getting what they paid for, using words such as “cash grab” and “scam”. Carter said they struggled to navigate “scary” nested virtual currencies that obfuscate actual cost.

Investigating the platform’s top 15 games, Carter’s team found deceptive monetisation in 14. Tactics included “near-miss” visuals to make wins feel attainable, and countdown timers to manufacture “false urgency” prompting impulsive spending. The study, Misleading and Deceptive Monetisation in Roblox, found that these deeply embedded tactics are encouraged by Roblox Corporation.

A Roblox spokesperson said the company is investigating the named games and will take action if community standards violations are identified. The company said purchases are never required and pointed to parental controls that allow caregivers to set spending limits and block specific games.

The studies criticised Roblox’s use of gambling-like mechanics, such as loot boxes based on probabilistic triggers. While Roblox maintains that it prohibits simulated gambling and requires developers to block Australian users from paid random items, researchers explicitly tested this. Out of the 15 games studied, seven were entirely non-compliant, allowing Australian players full access.

Carter argues the underlying design is inherently coercive. “Play is almost entirely the friction to make you spend money,” he explained. “Kids are constantly being peppered with pushes to spend … the whole gameplay loop is deeply ingrained with spending.”

Carter argued Roblox relies on a technicality in gambling law: because players cannot cash out winnings as real money, it escapes the legal definition, even though the psychological experience is identical. “To a young person, winning cool in-game items is the equivalent of winning real money,” he said.

With Roblox’s inflexible refund policy, children have little recourse when they fall victim to misleading in-game offers or trading scams where valuable items are talked into being swapped for worthless ones.

“Nearly all the kids that we spoke to had been scammed, and most had also scammed another child,” Carter said. “My problem is with a billion-dollar company monetising that and building a platform in such a way that these predatory, toxic cultures are supported.”

Sanika Vekhande, 23, assisted with the research after playing Roblox since she was 10. She recalled the profound freedom the game offered during COVID-19 lockdowns, calling it a lifeline.

“Going into this research, I had such an uncritical lens of Roblox because I love it,” she said. Once she started hunting for dark patterns, she realised they were everywhere. “Looking back, it’s really hard to process that something that was such a big part of my childhood had such a commercial aspect to it.”

Carter believes Roblox must be held accountable, comparing its tactics to recent Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) action against Coles and Woolworths.

“Items are presented as if discounted, or given inflated ‘worth’ prices, without evidence those prices were ever real,” he said. “If this happened in a supermarket, it would be clearly regulated.”

The ACCC said it was aware of Carter’s report, noting manipulative digital practices were an enforcement priority.

In February, Australia’s Communications Minister Anika Wells placed the platform “on notice” after reports of child grooming, while in the US, Roblox faces a wrongful death lawsuit alleging it allowed predators to victimise children.

While the Roblox platform holds a PG rating, the Australian Classification Board is reviewing whether a mandatory minimum classification should be introduced for Massively Multiplayer Online Social games like Roblox.

This update to the National Classification Scheme would force Roblox’s millions of individual games and activities to be classified separately, targeting the impact of micro-purchases and gambling-like tricks on minors.

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