Sober is exclusively available on Flathub, whom published these figures in their Year In Review: https://flathub.org/en/year-in-review/2025

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[–] 52 points 10 months ago (1 child)

Roblox has serious issues with kid safety, this is not good

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  • [–] 20 points 10 months ago

    The biggest problem I see on this case is basically the guy on the top calling these "people" an "opportunity" and then go after people that were actually doing something about it.

    Basically the ceo is an enabler, and probably a pedo too. Pedos will go wherever kids are. Its up to the platforms and parents to also shield their kids

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  • [–] 21 points 10 months ago (9 children)

    You know, it's now occuring to me that I have absolutely no clue what Roblox actually is. It's been around forever, I've been seeing gift cards for it in stores for I'm pretty sure well over a decade, I hear lots of talk about all of the dangers and how addictive it is for kids, etc.

    But I haven't the foggiest idea what the game is actually like. To the best of my knowledge I don't think I've ever even seen a single screenshot of it, at least not one that was clearly labeled as being from Roblox.

    And while I'm a childfree curmudgeon in my 30s, I do have a few friends with kids that I see with some regularity, and I've never heard any of them mention Roblox even in passing.

    I feel like I'm in a really weird bubble of roblox-ignorance, I'm not exactly mad about it, but it feels weird that for as big as Roblox is supposed to be that I've never seen anyone talk about the actual game, just how big of a problem it is.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    Roblox is actually less of a game, and more of a game engine and storefront. You open up Roblox and have a large selection of games, you can click play on. So there isn't any one screenshot of it, or one description of "the game."

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    I'm in the UK. Most of the kids I'm aware of play it. I know in other countries in other continents it's popular.

    It's a platform that people login and can play experiences (games) they choose. Anyone can make those games. Popular ones like 99 Nights in the Forest can have 1 million playing at a time.

    The fact you know kids that don't play it is odd, as it's huge. Or maybe they do and you aren't aware. Cause usually all their friends are playing it.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    There's no way it has 100% market penetration.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    No. Nothing does. There are about 1.4bn children over 5. Over 200m play per month. If you factor in economic information like those without devices, that's huge. One in 7 kids. In a class of 30, that's 4 players. Considering some countries will have low saturation, developed countries will have significant player population. It's huge. Unrivaled in gaming.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    I think it's like SecondLife or Metaverse for kids. I saw a short video about it, where kids were being exploited for labor. E.g. some of the kids had managers, forcing them to crunch creating and promoting content for Robux, or whatever it's called. Also saw an interview with the CEO, where he said he'd be open to adding adult content to the game (which is sus considering the problems the game is having with predators). I've also noticed the game is rated for teenagers on the Play Store, but I'm pretty sure it's targeted toward younger kids.

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    [–] 14 points 10 months ago

    Are you sure it's not just one person downloading it for each version of Linux they've tried to get running? /s

    It is good to see the move, been linux gaming for almost 3 years now and never looked back.

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Speaking of which, I’m trying to move my household over to Linux to have more control and whatnot.

    Does anybody know of a less invasive/problematic Roblox like game?

    For now I play along with my kid to keep an eye out which is mildly fun but not always a valid solution.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    polytoria is the best one its pretty janky right now but they are doing a godot rewrite its unity right now

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    Thx!

    Edit: politoria looks great but apparently they just got bought by Roblox and they’re gonna merge. Damn.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    It's likely a joke it's not posted by the owner willem steller and roblox hasn't announced anything in their newsroom also their admins are pretty critical of roblox

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I like how the third one is just an illegal clone of a copyrighted game.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Curious: how do we know that these download counts aren't inaccurate from, like, a few bots repeatedly downloading to mess with the stats?

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  • 51 comments in c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 92 points 10 months ago (7 children)
  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    You can get an android port of this now, true story

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  • [+] 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 27 points 10 months ago

    Haha hahahaha! Space Cadet Pinball on a top downloads list. Hey, old friend, how've you been?

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  • [–] 17 points 10 months ago

    Tbh PrismLauncher is better.

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  • [–] 41 points 10 months ago (22 children)

    Sober is single-handedly responsible for me being able to use Linux for my youngest kid's computer too. Absolutely awesome.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (21 children)

    Given the prevalence of predators on Roblox and the company's absolute ignorance of the issue, I have some concerns about your parenting here.

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  • [–] 24 points 10 months ago (12 children)

    As long as he doesn't let the kid play unsupervised, I don't think there's a problem outside of using things that might be the result of child exploitation.

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    Good in theory but can you actually picture parents watching their kids play Roblox every time so carefully they don’t miss them talking with the wrong people?

    I mean…that doesn’t sound remotely realistic

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  • [–] 20 points 10 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    Also sounds good in theory but kids often want to play with their friends so good luck trying to isolate them like that

    Plus, I’d put money at least 95% of parents aren’t going to want or be able to make comprehensive enough parental control schemes to do more than filter out violence and curse words, hardly effective against child exploitation

    Plus with them basically shutting down the FBI…I’d say don’t let them play it at all

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  • [–] 19 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I don't care about what other parents do, I know what we do. The kids can chat as much as they want with their friends - outside of Roblox.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago*

    Good policy but unfortunately we all do have to care a little bit about what other parents do because they’re causing problems for society at large that we can all reasonably fix with smart policy

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Supervision isn't sat down watching them the entire time. It's keeping an eye on them and monitoring what they are doing. And maybe have whatever they're playing on set up in a space that's easily viewable.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    Well then there’s no realistic way to actually supervise what they’re doing in Roblox because you would have no idea they’re talking to creepy adults every single day for years unless you actually monitor them

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    It's much easier if you talk to your child. Who is that person? Are they a friend from school? What kind of things do they talk to you about? And so on. You don't need to be watching 24/7, you just need to be checking and also talking with your kid about things.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Aren't most of the games you can play there ultimately the result of exploited and unpaid child labor?

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Look any game aimed at children is going to have this issue. And trying to force the kid to never play the big game all their friends are almost certainly playing is a fool's errand. Best bet is to let them do so with supervision than to end up with a kid trying to play in secret on their phone or something.

    Along with just... Talking to them about this problem and what to do if they encounter someone being creepy to them. Kids can be pretty smart if you help them and make it clear that they can come to you for that help.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    any game aimed at children is going to have this issue

    not at all. it just needs moderation, something Roblox's leadership has actively decided against because the predators were buying enough Robux to make it a major financial hit to remove paedos from the platform...

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    I'm going to be honest: I have a hard time believing it's actually worse than on the kind if sites I used when I was a kid. The problem exists and they aren't doing what they could, but I get the distinct feeling the weird To Catch A Predator fad is blowing a real problem up into an impossible crisis. Much like what happened back when the show itself was airing.

    Like I need to see some serious, hard evidence that's not just outrage.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    I will fight tooth and nail for your right to freely show your stupidity online.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    While I understand you taking offense at this reply, you can't really call them stupid when the issue of Roblox having predators and also the game itself promoting child work exploitation are both well documented issues that the makers of Roblox have been dodging instead of effectively addressing.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Of course I can call them stupid, since they without any information whatsoever as to the communication settings my kids have (none allowed) called my parenting into question.

    It really doesn't get more stupid than that even.

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  • [–] 33 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Child exploitation. So hot this year!...

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Despite it's many, many, many problems it is still incredibly popular. So the fact it's picking up traction on Linux is still interesting for its popularity alone.

    But goddamn is it a fucked up site. And to think I used to play back in 2008 and couldn't have imagined the form it'd take almost 20 years later.

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Why do people still use the default Minecraft launcher?

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I use it bc Curseforge uses it and I like getting my mod packs there.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I'm confused. What do you mean by Curseforge uses it?

    I thought all modern launchers supported easily adding Forge, Curseforge mods and Curseforge modpacks, including Curseforge's own launcher and Prism Launcher. Not hating on it, but I was genuinely confused to see the default Minecraft launcher was on Flathub, let alone popular. I haven't heard of anybody using it in a long time, and I remember it not being as convenient for modding. Maybe that's changed.

    Then again, maybe I'm unaware of some special support Curseforge gives to the default launcher, and it's fair if you prefer the default launcher's way of doing things. We all have preferences after all.

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Where does it say that Linux gaming is growing? Was this specific client downloaded less previous year?

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    I didn't know there was a client for Linux, that's interesting

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    It's the android client repackaged.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • 3 comments in c/linux_gaming@lemmy.ml view that post
    [–] 13 points 10 months ago

    That's like succeeding at mowing the lawn by eating the grass.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    Roblox is child grooming heaven. Not a win.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I love Sober!

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  • 3 comments in c/linux@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 23 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    The indoctrination of children in the ideals of free software must continue.

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  • Obligatory link to Roblox and its exploitation of young game developers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ

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  • 1 comment in c/linux@sh.itjust.works view that post
    [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Great that people are moving off of windows but when are people gonna move off of Roblox?

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