“This is incredibly dangerous”: Roblox CEO hopes to offer some sort of adult dating option in the future

An idea to offer dating for adults on Roblox has the internet talking.

For a long time, Roblox CEO David Baszucki has been touting the idea of making Roblox an adult dating site. Back at the 2023 Roblox Developers Conference (RDC), Baszucki first announced his intentions to appeal to the 17+ market. He argued that there was a “loneliness epidemic,” and that “thousands” of adults would form “real-life relationships” on the platform.

At the time, the move unsurprisingly caused controversy. Given that a large proportion of Roblox’s user base is 13 and under, the idea of making it an adult dating site is weird, to say the least.

Doubling down

However, during a recent podcast interview with TechStuff, Baszucki has continued to double down on this intention.

“I think a lot of people who are too afraid to go on a real-life date might find it easier to have a virtual date to start, and then if they connect, move to the physical world,” he said.

In 2023, Roblox raised its maturity rating. Adult players must provide ID documents. If they do, they’ll gain access to more mature aspects of Roblox, including content with themes like romance, along with alcohol and crudeness ratings.

“I think of [Roblox] as a platform to help loneliness and help bring connection,” Baszucki added. “Can we do this in a way that is more civil and higher quality than any other company could?”

Social media weighs in

However, in the past two years, opinions on using Roblox as a dating site haven’t changed, with netizens sharing their views on Reddit.

“Yeah, this is incredibly dangerous, and imho f*** this CEO for ignoring the obvious social realities here,” one wrote.

“Roblox is built off child exploitation in one form of another and the CEO absolutely knows it,” another added. ‘It’s par for the course really.”

While a third opined: “Look, call me a cynic but I don’t think the CEO is ignoring the social realities here, I think he is intentionally exploiting them for profit.”

At a time when child exploitation on the internet is debated more than ever, could Baszucki live to regret these actions?

The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.