Children in Russia have staged a massive revolt, sending 63,000 complaint letters to the Kremlin after the government banned the popular gaming platform Roblox, as per Tom’s Hardware. The state representative who confirmed the figures said that a staggering half of those irate young gamers threatened to leave the country entirely because of the blockade.
This level of revolt shows just how massive Roblox really is. As recently as 2023, the game was the most downloaded title in Russia. It boasts 111.8 million daily users globally, and around 40 percent of those gamers are 13 years old or younger. When you block a platform that popular, you’re going to get some serious pushback.
The government implemented the ban claiming it was strictly “for their own protection.” The official Russian media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, asserted that the game is full of “inappropriate content that can negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children.” They claim the California-based platform was being used to distribute extremist materials and promote “LGBT propaganda.”
The Roblox ban has done what an invasion into another sovereign nation couldn’t do
But there are also some claims here that are genuinely worrying for parents everywhere. The Russian watchdog specifically mentioned that children playing Roblox may be sexually harassed, tricked into sending intimate photos, or even “coerced into committing depraved acts and violence.” For its part, the Roblox corporation maintains that it works hard to keep its users safe. The company asserts that it implements “moderators and automated systems to proactively identify behaviors that may violate our policies.”
The level of complaint has gotten so loud that it has reached the highest levels of the Russian administration. Dmitry Peskov, President Putin’s well-known press secretary, confirmed that the Kremlin received “many” letters from children about the ban. It’s ironic when Russia’s war crimes reportedly include sending Ukraining children to North Korean military camps.
Even more specific figures came from pro-Kremlin censorship advocate Yekaterina Mizulina. She told her followers that she personally received 63,000 letters from kids aged between eight and 16 concerning this ban. The fact that half of those children said they wished to leave Russia due to the Roblox blockade really drives home how much this platform means to them. It’s not just a game; it’s a social space.
If you’re wondering why Roblox was suddenly targeted, it helps to look at the broader landscape. This platform is just the latest in a long line of Western-owned social media services to get blocked in Russia. You can’t use Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Twitter/X, or LinkedIn there either. Notably, the European Union imposed retaliatory tariffs on US-based social media apps, but users were spared from any hassle.
Meanwhile, platforms like YouTube are often throttled and disrupted, which encourages people to use the state-backed alternative, RuTube. Russia’s domestic social network, VK, is the most widely used in the country. It’s heavily moderated and features automatic content filtering according to the government’s blacklist. Blocking Roblox seems to be part of the ongoing strategy to push users toward these heavily controlled domestic alternatives.
Published: Dec 15, 2025 05:00 pm