PH government wants Roblox to open local office, among other guidelines to avoid ban
To avoid a ban in the country, the Philippine government wants Roblox to open a local office.
The Cybercrime and Coordinating Center (CICC) Undersecretary Renato "Aboy" Paraiso mentioned that this would be for tax purposes but stressed that is only secondary, but more importantly, they would have a local presence to allow better coordination in child safety.
According to multiple online statistics, including Roblox's own website, daily player count averages up around 150 million.
In 2024 the US' National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported Roblox has 24,522 incidents.
In a 2024 article from Bloomberg, for 2023, Roblox has had 13,316 incidents of child exploitation.
These are only reported cases, and so it may be possible that numbers are more. But it is still a tiny percentage compared to the 150 million users who play the game daily.
Often, child players are lured away from Roblox's own messaging to third party platforms such as Discord. It's possible other platforms are used as well, far enough from Roblox's own systems.
The Philippine government is also calling for Roblox to align the platform's policies with Philippine laws especially when it addresses online child exploitations.
The government is also calling for Roblox to strengthen collaboration with law enforcement through better information exchange, all within the bounds of the law.
Improve age verification requirements, given there are now new technologies for this. Though that topic is subject to its own controversies.