Roblox CEO Dave Baszuki appeared on The New York Times’ Hard Fork podcast to talk about the platform’s latest age verification system — but he appeared to grow impatient with repeated questions about protecting children.
At the start of the conversation, Baszuki explained the new feature, which will ask users to provide a face scan if they wish to use Roblox’s messaging tools. However, when the discussion shifted to a report alleging the company favored expansion over user safety, Baszuki seemed exasperated, replying, “Fun. Let’s keep going down this.”
When co-host Kevin Roose commented that enhancing Roblox’s AI models would be a key step toward greater child safety, Baszuki replied, “Great, so you agree with what we did. High-five.”
He went on to say, “And I want to point out, I’m here because I really enjoy your podcast and wanted to discuss a range of topics. If our PR team wanted me to focus on age-gating for an hour, I’d do it, but I’m here because I like your show. I expected to talk about a variety of things.”
