“We need to save the metaverse.” asserts Alex Farrugia, a young gamer from Toronto, Ontario, who is one of the three primary narrators of Shin’s documentary exposing the harassment, bullying, and abuse that is raging unchecked in the Roblox, Minecraft, and Discord gaming communities, and the poorly enforced safety measures thereof.
The film begins with the narrators outlining the popularity of online gaming culture. Alex highlights the surprising combinations of things one might encounter in these games (a dragon, a wizard, and a koala bear) stemming from the unending possibilities of one’s imagination. Janae, of Orange Park, Florida, appreciates that your character can be an extension of yourself who looks like you and talks like you in your own created world. The third narrator, Katie, from Pioneertown, California, loves that you can have, in a sense, a whole new life and interact with people from anywhere. Overall, each enjoys having a virtual venue to hang out with other players and the sense of community it brings.
The film next moves into the unfortunate ways the metaverse is being used for illicit, offensive, and dangerous purposes. Here, testimony of the three young women is interspersed with takes from industry experts. Janae talks about how, with her character’s skin color reflecting her own, she would be constantly swarmed and killed in the games as soon as she appeared. This issue was also referred to early on in the film, where news channels report stories of alt-right creators meeting in the metaverse to radicalize others. This is also later tied in with the Buffalo shootings of 2022, when Janae speaks with the son of one of its victims.
Dangerous Games: Roblox and the Metaverse Exposed came about because Katie, one of Roblox’s players, told her mother when she was twelve that she’d been groomed and sexually harassed by a game developer who was a highly esteemed figure in Roblox’s Sonic the Hedgehog (originally created by Sega) fan circle, known primarily as Doctor Rofatnik. Later revealed to be a man named Arnold Castillo, he was convicted in 2023 for transporting a minor across state lines to be sexually assaulted; he held her for eight days and wouldn’t let her leave. Though she never met Castillo in person, Katie bravely speaks to how her interactions with him affected her in the years since it happened.
The companies, for their part, appear to choose ignorance in the face of these problems and leave the players of the game to deal with issues themselves. But rather than surrender their beloved online space, Janae, Alex, and Katie are doing their best to advocate for it and make it safer. The mothers of Katie and Alex are interviewed as well, and are totally supportive of their daughters’ and Janae’s endeavors, voicing support and encouragement along the way.
As the film concludes, hopeful conversations have started taking place, with a lawsuit against Roblox pending, and Alex and Janae travelling to DC to speak with Massachusett’s congresswoman Lori Trahan about making kids safer through more stringent policies. These young people’s impassioned pleas for change is inspiring, with admirable common sense and wisdom when to comes to calling for high safety standards. Would recommend.
Which library audiences should see Dangerous Games: Roblox and the Metaverse Exposed?
Teenaged players and their caretakers alike can learn something from Dangerous Games. There are a multitude of figures in a child’s life who would all benefit from such a documentary resource, including academic librarians, teachers, and parents. This educational film allows its viewers to both inform and be informed about how practice awareness and safety in these online platforms, and the importance of speaking up when you see something inappropriate or harmful.
Can Dangerous Games be used in classrooms or youth programs?
Yes. The film works as an educational resource for middle school, high school, and college-level courses that explore media studies, internet culture, or digital citizenship. It is equally useful in parent workshops or youth programs, sparking conversations about online boundaries, reporting harassment, and advocating for safer virtual environments. By presenting both the risks and the resilience of young gamers, Dangerous Games equips educators and students with real-world examples that highlight why online safety remains a critical issue.
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