What Happened In The Roblox Interview
Roblox CEO David Baszucki just had one of the strangest high profile interviews in recent gaming history, and it is not because he announced a new feature or some game changing tech. It is because of how he talked about predators on the platform, child safety, and Roblox’s future.
Baszucki appeared on the New York Times podcast Hard Fork to promote Roblox’s new AI powered age gating tools. Instead, the conversation turned into an awkward clash over how seriously the company takes child safety.
The tone was set right away. When the hosts asked about “the problem of predators on Roblox,” Baszucki answered that the company does not think of it just as a problem, but also as an opportunity. He framed it as a chance to invent the future of how young people communicate and hang out online.
If you are being generous, you can read that as CEO speak for: there is a real issue, and Roblox wants to solve it with better tools that others can learn from. The problem is that everything that followed made that spin a lot harder to swallow.
Throughout the interview, Baszucki leaned heavily on vague language about AI, behavioral signals, and facial scans that can help Roblox make what he called cool decisions. When pressed for details, he did not give much. There were no clear explanations of how these systems work, how effective they are, or when parents and players can expect to see real changes.
The same fuzziness showed up when the hosts asked why it has taken Roblox so long to roll out basic safety features, like limiting chat to specific age bands so that kids and adults are less likely to mix in the same spaces. The answer never really moved beyond general talk about innovation and technology.
Denials, Lawsuits, And A Very Awkward “High Five”
The tension rose when the interviewers brought up a very obvious question. If Roblox safety tech is so advanced, why have predators still been able to reach kids on the platform so easily up to now
Instead of walking through what has gone wrong and how Roblox plans to fix it, Baszucki said he did not want to comment. He went further and basically rejected the idea that Roblox has a predator problem at all. He acknowledged that lawsuits and media coverage bring up serious concerns, but said he categorically rejects the way the interviewer described the situation.
That position is hard to square with what is happening in the real world. Roblox is facing more than twenty lawsuits related to child safety. At the same time, several US states are going after the company:
- Louisiana has sued Roblox, accusing it of failing to protect children from predators.
- Kentucky has filed its own case, describing the platform as a playground for people who want to harm kids.
- Texas is suing as well, saying Roblox puts pixel predators and profits ahead of children.
- Florida has launched a criminal investigation into whether Roblox enabled kids to be abused.
In that context, you might expect the CEO to be extremely careful and prepared. Instead, the interview kept drifting into uncomfortable territory.
When the hosts mentioned a Hindenburg Research report that claimed Roblox was cutting back on trust and safety spending, Baszucki’s response was to note that Hindenburg is no longer in business and then ask the interviewer if they had done their own research. He then twisted the question into a hypothetical scenario, getting the host to agree with his framing, and followed it up with a strange “Good, so you are aligning with what we did. High five.”
From the outside, it plays less like a confident defense and more like a defensive bit. The back and forth is not exactly explosive, but it feels weird, stilted, and totally out of sync with the seriousness of the topic. Even one of the hosts later called it maybe the craziest interview they have ever done.
Baszucki, for his part, leaned into the bit on social media, replying to a post about the episode by thanking the host, repeating his enthusiasm for Roblox safety work, and signing off with yet another High Five.
Gambling, Dating, And Reading The Room
If the goal was to calm parents and regulators, the ending of the interview did not help.
Later in the episode, the hosts brought up Polymarket and prediction markets in general. These are systems where people place bets on future events, like sports results or election outcomes. It started as a light, almost joking question. Would Roblox ever add a prediction market of its own
Baszucki’s answer was yes. He said he thinks it is a brilliant idea if it is educational and legal. He even imagined a Roblox style example. No free Robux, no prizes, just a game called something like Dress to Impress Predictor where players predict outcomes but are not directly gambling real money.
The interviewer immediately pushed back, calling it a horrible idea and joking that when it comes to gambling you are never too young. That line was clearly sarcastic, but it underlines the disconnect. Right now Roblox is under heavy fire for child safety. This is not exactly the moment most people expect the CEO to be publicly brainstorming kid friendly prediction markets that look a lot like gambling systems.
The prediction market comment also fits into a larger pattern. Earlier this year, Baszucki floated the idea that Roblox could eventually support dating, with age verification and a path from virtual dates to real world meetings. That suggestion horrified a lot of parents and critics, who already worry about predators using Roblox to approach minors. Adding dating features on top of that concern is a tough sell.
Put all of this together and you get a pretty wild snapshot of where Roblox is right now. It is one of the biggest kids gaming platforms on the planet, under legal and political pressure to prove it can keep children safe. Meanwhile, its CEO is out doing media interviews that lean heavily on AI buzzwords, gloss over existing failures, and casually explore ideas like in platform prediction markets and future dating features.
For Roblox fans and parents alike, the interview is worth a listen not because it inspires confidence, but because it shows how far the company still has to go in matching its public messaging to the very real risks on its platform.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/interview-with-roblox-ceo-kicks-off-with-an-unbelievable-answer-about-its-predator-problem-being-not-just-a-problem-but-an-opportunity-and-somehow-just-gets-crazier-from-there/
