Roblox Says Policing Virtual World is Like 'Shutting Down Speakeasies'

As online gaming platform Roblox confronts a lawsuit alleging it enabled a California girl's exploitation, its chief scientist said finding dangerous content in the company's virtual world is nothing like spotting it in video. From a report: "It's such a challenge to moderate 3D," said Morgan McGuire in an interview at the Reuters Momentum conference in Austin on Tuesday. He had no comment on the recent lawsuit but said Roblox was built with safety and civility at the forefront. San Mateo, Calif.-based Roblox is deploying bots to patrol user-generated games and press buttons to detect any dangerous content that players have disguised. "This is more like shutting down speakeasies," he said, referring to U.S. prohibition-era bars hiding from law enforcement. BBC reported this year that users had created explicit private spaces, known as "condos," where people's digital avatars could engage in virtual sex.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.