Image: Roblox
Roblox is “working with local authorities” to resolve the ban.
The Turkish government has officially banned Roblox indefinitely. Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç posted a statement announcing the ban on Twitter/X, following an investigation that found “content that could lead to the exploitation of children.”
The Turkish government has also blocked access to apps like Instagram and Wattpad over the last week, signalling that it is in the midst of an extensive social media crackdown.
Turkey permanently blocks access to Roblox over child exploitation fears
The Turkish government has permanently banned access to the Roblox platform, following an investigation by the government. A machine-translated statement shared by Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç did not name a specific cause for this ban, but noted that the investigation found “content that could lead to the exploitation of children” and affirmed that “attempts to undermine our social structure, abuse of children, encouragement of violence, and activities that will negatively affect the development of our children, each of whom is a precious gift, will never be allowed.”
Roblox posted a statement on its website responding to the ban, saying:
On Aug 7, we learned that Roblox was blocked in Türkiye, and we are currently working with local authorities with the goal of resolving it. We are mindful that millions of people use our platform in Türkiye every day, including a vibrant community of developers whose businesses are built on Roblox. We’re committed to doing everything we can to keep our community safe, and we share global policymakers’ commitment to protecting children.
Roblox ended the statement by saying that it looks “forward to this discussion in Türkiye with the important goal of getting Roblox users online again as soon as possible.” This isn’t the first platform the Turkish government has banned of late. On August 2, it blocked access to Instagram after a senior aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the platform of censoring posts related to the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
The fiction and writing platform Wattpad was also banned on August 2, but no explanation was given for the ban.