Spend any amount of time watching kids play and it won’t be long before their game becomes a mirror for life. Their Barbies might start to sound an awful lot like you and your partner. Or maybe you notice your son’s dinosaurs are on a vacation to Disney World that seems pretty familiar. Because even when it seems like nothing you tell your kids gets through (why is there always a wet towel on the bathroom floor…?), children really are sponges, and that includes current events.
Case in point: kids have been cosplaying and protesting ICE on Roblox.
Roblox, a digital platform that allows players to create and play games, boasts more than 85 million users per day and most of them are children under 18. Approximately 40% are under 13. One popular game on the platform is Brookhaven, where players can explore a city, own homes, and interact with other players. (Millennials, think The Sims.) And just as real life experiences can trickle into kids playtime with dolls or dress-up, Roblox is no exception. Recently, some players have been cosplaying as ICE agents, “raiding” other players’ (digital) homes. This prompted other players to do what folks have done IRL in response to actual ICE raids: they took to the (virtual) streets to protest.
Reporter Taylor Lorenz recently covered the phenomenon on her Substack User Mag, and indeed, dozens of videos are available across TikTok sharing clips from protest events. Players’ avatars are holding signs with messages like “F ICE,” “No One Is Illegal On Stolen Land,” and “Families Belong Together.” They wave Mexican flags and clash with other players expressing support for the immigration agency.
For some, including 17-year-old Simon Guterriez, whom Lorenz interviewed, the digital protest was a way to show solidarity — and feel heard — when they were told they couldn’t go to a protest on the streets of their actual city.
“A lot of young people really want to protest and put their words and beliefs out there but are unable to,” he said, “so this is the only thing we can turn to.”
This is not the first time the Roblox community has come together to protest. At the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, virtual versions of the events could be found on Roblox. In 2023, players joined together in support of Palestinians enduring war in Gaza.
It just goes to show that even when it doesn’t seem it, kids are paying attention and, often, have something to say.
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