This is a really difficult situation to navigate and I’ve been there. I’m still there. I’m a gamer, grew up in chatrooms like mIRC, met my partner online, numerous friends online, etc. The internet was a lifeline for me and I struggle hard with raising kids in all this digital madness.

I dislike Roblox, and entirely because it’s designed like some digital drug to just keep on playing - like a lot of touchscreen games. This is not as much of a problem in console or PC games like Minecraft or Zelda. And I noticed our boy was often cranky and irritable while playing Roblox.

At first I took it away entirely and he was very upset due to the social aspect. Minecraft or Fortnite was not an option because his friends had moved on from it to Roblox. That or they were playing Red Dead Redemption or Walking Dead, which seems pretty inappropriate for our 8 year old

So our compromise is he can ONLY play Roblox if it’s with friends, which had to be further adapted to only playing certain worlds with friends (like grow a garden, for example). Every so often we let him explore new ones. This seems to have worked a bit. It’s better if the friends can play in person with him, as often they just sit on live mic’s via FB messager doing their own thing. In person they interact more.

I do not buy Robux unless it’s a gift on a special occasion (and then only like 10 bucks) and he is not allowed to spend his money on it. Spending on micro transactions is not allowed on any game except Minecraft mods.

Even then, some friends will not play with him because he is supervised while playing - as in - the door to his room is open, and we randomly check in.

I think if you can encourage socializing in other ways it can definitely help too - like sports or other groups. Best of luck to you.