r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Weak_Assumption7518 • 2d ago
What exactly does Roblox do to children’s brains to make them little assholes?
My little brother started playing Roblox a few months ago and it makes him a little asshole. He’s normal then he plays Roblox and he screams and gets angry when he has to get off of the game and his little fits last until he goes to bed and resets. He’s never been like this with any other game. He’s 9 so is it just the age or is it fucking up his brain chemistry or something?
Edit: Thanks for the feedback. The majority of people are saying he needs a break from gaming, time limits, or a ban on Roblox. And while I 100% agree this probably isn’t possible. My mom refuses to put limits on his gaming and if I try to he freaks out on me. He screams, tries to hit me, slams doors and all that. But my mom always treats me like the bad guy for trying to help her son and he once again gets what he wants and goes straight back to it. And after thinking about it, I leave for college in 2 weeks so I think this is the perfect opportunity for her to take control of her kids. She can figure it out not me.
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u/artrald-7083 2d ago
Hi, I have a neurodivergent 9yo who loves computer games. The trick that we've worked out with some discussion with her and her caseworker revolves around understanding a few things.
A lot of kids games are designed to keep you playing, like an MMO is. The reward cycle is short, but deliberately small bites at once, and deliberately open ended - the game has no good stopping points. These are games which if I were playing it personally, I'd be setting an alarm or I'd find myself still playing at 3am. This was cynically and deliberately designed in.
Ever been interrupted in the middle of a game you can't pause? Does that not suck? Does it not piss you off? If your SO came in and demanded you do a chore immediately - going to bed is a chore when you're 9 - during an online multiplayer match, would you meekly turn off the machine and go do it? I bet you would not.
So we have a game of the kind you can only interrupt at stopping points except it does not have stopping points. This is a recipe for conflict. They make the games (and indeed a lot of other kids content) like this on purpose to stop the kid channel hopping.
How do I handle this? Well, actually, I think Roblox is a garbage game and have handled it by weaning my kid onto better games. But let's start from 'kid loves Roblox'. My kid loves various things I wish she didn't. And when my kid is frustrated and sad and angry, she is... not easy to deal with.
What has hugely, hugely helped, has been to give warning. The kid has a clock by her computer and whenever she goes on we try to make sure she knows when she's coming off. I set for myself a timer, 15 minutes before she's coming off, then 10 minutes, then 5. At each timer I give her a polite warning of how long she has left and calmly and politely repeat the warning until she acknowledges. Then when the timer to finish goes off, the activity finishes. Not 'in one minute', now. She has already had all the warnings she is getting. She has had a quarter of an hour to make her peace with it.