The majority of our audience will know what Roblox is, even if most of us haven't played it. Despite that fact, the game remains one of the most popular in the world, especially among kids, as the title is aimed squarely at younger players.
Over the years there have been a number of safety concerns raised by the game, which is effectively a platform for player-generated content, and due to this many parents have banned their children from using it (including yours truly), although that hasn't stopped millions of youngsters from downloading the platform and the user-generated content that comes with it.
Last month there was a shocking incident in the game whereby one young gamer was subjected to an in-game gang rape, where a hacked version of the game allowed a number of players to violate the girl's digital avatar in an act known as "rape trolling".
This upsetting incident was highlighted by the seven-year-old's mother over on Facebook, and since then the game's creator has not only apologised to the girl and her family (and the wider community) but has also outlined its increased security measures. Here's the full statement sent to Tech Crunch:
"Roblox's mission is to inspire imagination and it is our responsibility to provide a safe and civil platform for play. As safety is our top priority - we have robust systems in place to protect our platform and users," the statement explains.
"This includes automated technology to track and monitor all communication between our players as well as a large team of moderators who work around the clock to review all the content uploaded into a game and investigate any inappropriate activity. We provide parental controls to empower parents to create the most appropriate experience for their child, and we provide individual users with protective tools, such as the ability to block another player."
"The incident involved one bad actor that was able to subvert our protective systems and exploit one instance of a game running on a single server. We have zero tolerance for this behavior and we took immediate action to identify how this individual created the offending action and put safeguards in place to prevent it from happening again."
"In addition, the offender was identified and permanently banned from the platform. Our work on safety is never-ending and we are committed to ensuring that one individual does not get in the way of the millions of children who come to Roblox to play, create, and imagine."