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What just happened? Roblox is once again trying to restrict potentially abusive behavior that could harm kids. Some developers have attempted to force players to doomscroll through TikTok videos, but the practice is now officially considered inappropriate for younger gamers.
After going viral and attracting around half a million concurrent players, the Roblox experience "Steal an Egg" is now facing brand-new restrictions. The widely popular user-generated gaming platform is prohibiting younger players from accessing SAE and similar experiences because they are supposedly designed to encourage kids to watch endless streams of media content through reward-based gameplay mechanics.
Roblox's official alert does not expressly mention SAE, but the new policy is most certainly targeting the viral game first and foremost. The company said games that reward ongoing media consumption are now unavailable to players with a Roblox Kids (ages 5 to 8) or Roblox Select (ages 9 to 15) account. The policy will affect games designed to combine media feeds, autoplay, infinite scrolling, and systems that reward players for doomscrolling through TikTok videos of questionable value.
"Steal an Egg" fits perfectly into this new category. The game tasks players with raising eggs, but they can also steal eggs from other NPCs. Players are incentivized to increase their characters' speed either by spending in-game currency (Robux) or by watching a video feed on a virtual treadmill. "Steal an Egg" was recently removed from Roblox but is now back in the store without its troublesome video-feed feature.
The company explained that rewarding users for TikTok doomscrolling – which mostly means watching massive amounts of AI slop and brainrot-inducing clips these days – is not an appropriate gaming experience for younger users. Roblox Kids and Select accounts include several restrictions on access to the platform's chat feature and certain types of mature content.
Roblox also highlights that the new anti-doomscrolling restriction does not apply to the rewarded video ads feature, which rewards players for watching a short clip but does not include autoplay or other infinite-scroll-like design choices.
The new policy will certainly fuel the ongoing debate about the safety of millions of kids who access Roblox on a daily basis. Authorities across the globe are targeting the platform for allegedly trying to exploit younger players, turning a virtual chatroom into a safe haven for sexual predators and enabling other forms of child exploitation. So far, the company has tried to improve safety by implementing several age-related restrictions and AI-based identification procedures.
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