Roblox has long had faced complaints and legal issues over child safety issues, and the gaming platform's latest attempt to quell those complaints was to add AI-powered facial age estimation to match users in chat with those of a similar age. In a recent interview with The New York Times to discuss these new safety features, Roblox CEO, David Baszucki, addressed questions about the future of the UGC gaming platform. Much of the early conversation revolved around the new safety features and how they would affect the users of Roblox, especially minors, but when asked about potentially adding features like microtransactions, lootboxes, and "kid gambling" to Roblox in the future, Baszucki explained that he thinks "we would have to do that."

After a bit of push back from the journalist conducting the interview, Baszucki continues to say that he thinks it's "a brilliant idea if it can be done in an educational way that's legal," without trying to get children financially involved in gambling, but still mimicking the actual mechanics. There is research to indicate that gambling mechanics in video games are linked to addiction in adulthood, especially when elements of real gambling situations—casino sounds or visuals, for example—are employed. That said, most video game loot box systems that have been the focus of research contain a monetary element as well. Aside from the addictive aspects of loot boxes in gaming, microtransactions themselves are often seen as manipulative and potentially predatory.

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