Playing with danger: How Kenyan parents are struggling to pull children from Roblox

For many parents, the smartphone has quietly become a second parent, keeping children occupied,  entertained and connected, but also opening doors to a digital world they cannot always see or control. Behind the games, chats and endless scrolling lies a growing concern: what happens when screen time begins to shape a child’s behaviour, relationships and sense of safety?

Across Kenyan homes, parents are confronting the difficult reality of children  spending hours online, forming relationships with strangers and encountering content far beyond their years. For some, the warning signs are already visible, children becoming agitated when asked to put down their phones, sneaking games onto devices, neglecting schoolwork and chores, or spending money simply to remain online.

One platform increasingly at the centre of these concerns is Roblox, a popular online gaming platform that allows users to create, play and interact with others.

A growing number of parents are concerned over risks their children get exposed to while on Roblox. The apprehension stems from compulsive addictive play to direct contact with predatory strangers.

Some parents are disturbed that children spend long hours on phones, cyber cafes, some even stealing money just to go and play the game.

Others secretly download the game onto their parents’ phones and play it without their knowledge. “I used to wonder why my phone kept hanging. When I took it to a technician to check what the problem was, I was told there was a game called Roblox that was affecting it,” says Jessica Akinyi, a parent in Umoja Estate.

Timothy Ogwanda, a resident of Kayole Estate, Nairobi, said his 15-year-old son becomes visibly agitated when asked to stop playing, often ignoring requests for 30 minutes or longer before he can be pulled away from the screen.

“I tell you, sometimes it becomes a struggle getting him away from that game. Sometimes you want to give him some tasks, but he keeps telling you, ‘Give me five minutes,’ which can turn into an hour or more,” he says.

Janet Kagendo, a single mother in Nairobi’s Saika Estate, said her 11-year-old son spends long stretches at a local cybercafé playing nothing but Roblox with his peers, sometimes simply watching others play when he has no money to spend on the game.

“It has reached a point where I need some assistance, whether it is a psychologist or a father figure, because the child can come from school and head straight to the cybercafé without bothering to change his uniform or even do his homework,” she says, adding; “I have done my best to dissuade him, to no avail.”

Alex Mananda, also from Buruburu, warned that Roblox’s social features could allow other users to glean a child’s location, an experience he said his own family had encountered..

Beyond the game

Jessica Odhiambo, a resident of Buruburu Estate, said her 13-year-old daughter, Hailleey, was befriended by another girl on Roblox who later directed her to Discord and then to another external website.

According to Jessica, the site exposed Hailleey to graphic self-harm content and a network of peers who taught each other what to do and how to behave. Hailleey, her mother said, was left distraught for days afterwards.

“Children will just be children. They are impressionable and gullible,” Jessica wrote, urging other parents to research the risks and remove their children from the platform if necessary.

She said she had previously dismissed warnings, believing her daughter was “just playing a normal game” rather than communicating with strangers.

Purity Matu, a businesswoman based in Gikomba, Nairobi, said she sometimes receives nude images from a white girl who claims to be 13 through a Roblox account belonging to her son. She said the girl continues to send the images.

Matu doubts whether the sender is actually 13 and suspects she could be an adult impersonating a child.

“It is high time you checked on your children’s conduct,” Purity warns, adding: “Your sons could be getting girlfriends through Roblox, and it would be better to delete the Roblox accounts from their phones and, if possible, restrict their access to gadgets.”

According to Purity, parents should be concerned about the possibility of a 13-year-old sending nude images to their sons without hesitation.

Jane Mugo, an educational consultant, life coach and mentor, turned the question back on parents, arguing that the gaming addiction some Kenyan families are grappling with did not emerge in a vacuum.

“Roblox is a menace, yes. We have many parents complaining about it. But again, who’s to blame? Before children, especially boys, become addicted to it, let’s ask ourselves, who failed?” she posed.

Provision for presence

She echoed concerns that the game’s addictive pull is real but argued that parents bear some responsibility for encouraging the behaviour. In her view, many families mistake material provision for presence, buying children gadgets and assuming this frees them to focus entirely on work and other responsibilities.

“Children need our time. They watch our moves,” she said, adding: “A child who feels neglected will seek solace elsewhere, whether in gaming or drugs. By the time parents notice, the addiction has often taken firm hold and become difficult to reverse.”

Mugo was not entirely without hope, however, pointing to counselling and mentorship as ways to re-engage affected children and gradually draw them away from compulsive gaming through constructive activities.

She also placed Roblox within a wider landscape of online games she considers harmful, linking excessive exposure to such platforms with violent behaviour, poor attitudes and even suicidal tendencies among young people.

Alex Waswa, a Nairobi-based app developer known professionally as “Alex Developer”, offered a different perspective, arguing that addictive design is not an inevitable feature of gaming apps, but a choice made by specific platforms.

Role of developers

Waswa said not all applications are designed to be addictive, but that some are, and developers bear responsibility for how their products affect young users. In his view, companies operating platforms, such as Roblox need to consider the age of their target audience when designing features and safeguards.

“Game developers like Roblox need to put up safety measures and proper safety guidelines, as well as specify the ideal age set and how to use the platform appropriately,” Waswa said, adding: “In case policies existed, proper implementation protocols need to be in place as well.”

Augustine Manoti, a serving police officer and grandparent of two Roblox-playing children, said he has dealt with instances where someone on the platform works to build relationships with the minors before coaching them to move conversations to apps, such as Snapchat, WhatsApp, and Facebook which unlike Roblox allows exchange of photos and videos.

Manoti acknowledged the platform’s positive implications, including its potential to teach creativity, budgeting, problem-solving, but said parents often underestimate how easily its chat features can be exploited and misused.

He also pointed to in-app spending as a habitual source of family conflict, noting that some children have used stolen payment cards belonging to their parents or guardians to purchase in-game currency. He went on to observe that disputes over screen time are now among the most common reasons parents become worried over a child’s behaviour at home.

Constant monitoring

His recommendations include monitoring their children’s behaviour, disabling in-game chat, consistently reviewing a child’s contact list, closely monitoring gameplay sessions and maintaining open conversations regarding online safety; while cautioning that disabling chat alone does not make the platform a safe haven.

Other parents raised similar concerns about children forming online relationships and being pressured into sharing inappropriate images, urging closer supervision of devices and accounts.

Maggie Babere, a city resident, was blunter in her criticism of parents themselves, arguing that giving young children unsupervised access to smartphones while simultaneously restricting phone use at school sends a confusing message, and that a device requiring constant monitoring may not be appropriate for a child in the first place.

“I don’t understand how a parent buys a phone for a 13-year-old, what for? I will only buy my child a phone after Form Four. Period,” she stated.

Counseling psychologist Allan Lawrence cautioned against framing the debate purely in terms of whether Roblox is “bad” or “good,” arguing that the more useful question is what role gaming is playing in a child’s general life.

Roblox, he says, can foster creativity, problem-solving and social interaction, and concern should arise not from a specific number of hours spent playing, but when the game begins to displace sleep, schoolwork, family time and offline friendships; and when a child cannot stop playing without significant distress.

Excessive gaming, he added, can be both a problem in itself and a symptom of an underlying one, such as loneliness, academic pressure or difficulties at home.

Lawrence urges parents to set clear boundaries, understand what their children are playing and who they are interacting with, and model healthy technology use themselves, instead of simply relying on confiscating devices. “The goal is not to raise children who fear technology; rather, it is to raise children who can exploit technology without being controlled by it,” he said, adding: “A healthy child should be able to enjoy Roblox, switch it off on the right time, tolerate boredom, engage with people, pursue responsibilities and still enjoy life beyond the screen.”

 US lawsuits

The concerns raised by Kenyan parents echo a wider, global reckoning with Roblox’s safety record. In May this year, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a lawsuit against Roblox Corp and Discord Inc., accusing both companies of failing to adequately protect children from online predators despite marketing their platforms as safe haven for children and general users.

The lawsuit focused on the case of Hailey Buzbee, a 17-year-old from Fishers, Indiana, who died after communicating on Roblox and Discord with a 39-year-old Ohio man who allegedly lured her from her home.

According to the lawsuit, both companies had failed to protect children from online predators, leaving them vulnerable to abuse, harassment, and sexual exploitation. Until today, Roblox has faced over 100 active lawsuits in the United States alone tied to allegations of sexual predation on the platform.

Nonetheless, Roblox has continued to defend its safety record. The company’s Chief Safety Officer, Matt Kaufman, was quoted pointing to AI-powered screening, filters, and human moderators designed to prevent users from exchanging personal information, and said the company works with law enforcement agencies whenever violations are identified.

For Kenyan parents, the message from local voices and international cases alike are revolving around open communication, awareness, and supervision, are likely to be the most effective defense against the platform’s risks.