Roblox CEO: Pay-to-Earn Isn't Child Labor, It's a Gift
Roblox boss Stefano Corazza has opened up about accusations of young developer exploitation on its platform, saying that the opportunity Roblox gives its teenage creators is “a gift."
Roblox has had in-game development tools via its Studio feature for a while, offering users the chance to create entire games that can then be published for other players and monetized. It all takes place within Roblox itself, streamlining the experience for creators and giving Roblox a cut of the profits.
The Roblox creator website encourages users to “make anything you can imagine,” enticing would-be developers with the promise that experiences can be published instantly to more than 66.1 million other users across the globe. It adds that there are currently more than 3.1 million Roblox developers.
The Roblox name has long been associated with a younger player base, and many have accused Corazza and his team of taking advantage of children who use the platform to create games. The studio head attempted to shut down these claims during an interview with Eurogamer by explaining why their creation tools aren’t exploiting child labor.
"I don't know, you can say this for a lot of things, right?" Corazza explained. "Like, you can say, 'Okay, we are exploiting, you know, child labour,' right? Or, you can say: we are offering people anywhere in the world the capability to get a job, and even like an income. So, I can be like 15 years old, in Indonesia, living in a slum, and then now, with just a laptop, I can create something, make money and then sustain my life.”
He continued: "There's always the flip side of that, when you go broad and democratised - and in this case, also with a younger audience. I mean, our average game developer is in their 20s. But of course, there's people that are teenagers - and we have hired some teenagers that had millions of players on the platform.”
Corazza elaborated, declaring the benefits Roblox Studio offers its more creative teenage users. He even says that the
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