What Advice Would You Offer Parents Who are Debating Whether to Let Their Kids Use Roblox?

Before I get to today’s question, I want to explain a little bit about the Big Kid Support Group (BKSG). There are a few people who have asked what age defines a “big kid” and whether this group would be relevant to parents with younger kids. My definition of “big kids” seems to age as my kids age, but originally, when I introduced #thebigkidyears hashtag years ago (anyone remember that?), it meant any kid over the age of five. That seems super young to me at this point, but I guess that was the age where I started to feel like it was harder to share stories about my kids without invading their privacy and when I started to feel like there was less out there on the internet that was helpful. You could read articles from major publications talking about the issues you might be having, but less bloggers writing personal accounts. Understandably. So, I guess, knowing that a lot of my readers have younger kids, and knowing that us moms with older kids can be particularly helpful to that group, I would like to open this group to slightly younger questions as well.

For instance, today, I’d like for us to answer a question about every little kid’s first venture into online multiplayer gaming: Roblox.

My second grader is feeling left out because she claims “all” of her friends are playing Roblox together. We’re feeling hesitant to jump into chat games. I’m curious what age your readers felt this was safe for their kids or if they have run into anything that posed problems they weren’t expecting. I’d love to hear perspectives from parents who let their kids use Roblox and felt it was ultimately harmless, as well as perspectives from parents who held out— did you feel that it actually hurt your child’s ability to fit in with their friend group? How did you deal with that? Did your child eventually get over it? Or did you eventually give in?